Flora of North America species comparison

erect, simple or with lateral branches (especially distally), 0.2–1 m. Leaves: petiole 1/2–11/2 as long as blade;

blade rhombic-ovate or ovate, 1–7 × 0.5–5 cm, base rounded, cuneate, or attenuate, margins entire, plane, apex obtuse, rounded, or emarginate, mucronate.

erect, green, branched, 0.3–1 m. Leaves: petiole of proximal leaves equaling or longer than blade, becoming shorter distally;

blade rhombic-ovate or ovate to elliptic, 3–12 × 2–8 cm, base broadly cuneate, margins entire, apex slightly acuminate to obtuse and faintly emarginate, mucronate.

of pistillate flowers ovate to lanceolate, 1 mm, shorter than tepals.

lanceolate, shorter than 2 mm, shorter than tepals, apex spinescent.

slender spikes aggregated into elongate terminal panicles, also from distal axils, green, leafless at least distally.

terminal panicles and axillary spikes;

panicles erect or often drooping, green, dense, branched, leafless at least distally.

inconspicuous, mostly at tips of inflorescences;

tepals 3;

stamens 3.

usually clustered at tips of inflorescence branches, sometimes gathered in proximal glomerules (as in A. spinosus);

tepals 5, equal or subequal;

stamens 5.

tepals 3, narrowly elliptic, obovate-elliptic or spatulate, not clawed, ± equal, 1.2–1.7 mm, apex rounded or nearly acute, mucronate or not;

style branches erect;

stigmas 3.

tepals 5, oblong-spatulate to oblong, not clawed, 1.5–2 mm, apex acute, often very shortly mucronate;

style branches strongly spreading, shorter than body of fruit;

stigmas 3.

black or dark brown, subglobose to thick-lenticular, 1 mm diam., minutely punctulate, rather dull.

dark reddish brown to black, subglobose or lenticular, 0.8–1 mm diam., shiny, smooth.

ovoid to compressed-ovoid, 1–1.6 mm, equaling or slightly exceeding tepals, prominently or faintly rugose, indehiscent.

ovoid or subglobose, 1.5–2 mm, slightly shorter than tepals, smooth to irregularly wrinkled, dehiscence regularly circumscissile.

= 64.