Arenaria lanuginosa |
Arenaria lanuginosa var. lanuginosa |
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spreading sandwort |
spreading sandwort |
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Habit | Plants ± strongly perennial, possibly blooming first year, not matted. | |||||
Taproots | filiform to moderately thickened; rhizomes often present, slender, 2–15+ cm. |
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Stems | 1–80+, erect or ascending to procumbent or prostrate to trailing, green, 5–60 cm; internodes terete to angular, 1/3–8+ times as long as leaves, dull, retrorsely pubescent throughout or in lines, hairs minute. |
often 1–10, prostrate to trailing. |
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Leaves | usually connate basally, with scarious sheath 0.1–0.5 mm, occasionally petiolate (proximal leaves) or sessile; petiole 2–5 mm; blade 1-veined, vein prominent abaxially, linear-lanceolate to narrowly elliptic or oblanceolate, 3–35 × 2–14 mm, herbaceous, margins thickened, scarious, shiny, ciliate proximally or throughout, apex obtuse or acute to apiculate, often minutely pustulate, ciliate on margins and adaxial midrib; axillary leaf clusters absent. |
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Inflorescences | axillary, solitary flowers or in proliferating, mostly terminal, leafy, 1–80+-flowered cymes. |
axillary, solitary flowers. |
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Pedicels | erect to ascending (often arcuately so), or straight to widely divergent, often hooked distally in fruit, 2–40 mm, retrorsely pubescent. |
straight to widely divergent, often hooked distally in fruit, 25–40 mm. |
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Flowers | sepals green, 1–3-veined, 2 lateral veins 1/4–3/4 times as long as midvein, often appearing prominently keeled proximally, lanceolate to ovate (herbaceous portion oblong or lanceolate to ovate), 2–5 mm, to 5.5 mm in fruit, apex acute to acuminate, not pustulate, glabrous; petals narrowly spatulate to obovate, 1.5–6 mm, 1/2–12/5 times as long as sepals or absent, apex obtuse to rounded, petals sometimes absent. |
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Capsules | ± loosely to tightly enclosed by calyx, ovoid, 3–6 mm, 4/5–11/2 times as long as sepals. |
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Seeds | 8–35, black, suborbicular, slightly compressed, 0.7–0.8 mm, shiny, smooth. |
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Petals | 1/2–3/4 times as long as sepals or absent. |
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2n | = 40, 44. |
= 44 (South America). |
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Arenaria lanuginosa |
Arenaria lanuginosa var. lanuginosa |
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Phenology | Flowering spring–summer. | |||||
Habitat | Forests, limestone outcrops, moist hummocks, dunes | |||||
Elevation | 0-200 m (0-700 ft) | |||||
Distribution |
AL; AZ; CA; CO; FL; GA; LA; MS; NC; NM; SC; TN; TX; UT; VA; Central America; South America
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AL; FL; GA; LA; MS; NC; SC; TN; TX; VA; Mexico; Central America; South America |
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Discussion | Varieties 4+ (2 in the flora). Arenaria lanuginosa is morphologically diverse, both in our area and southward into northern South America, and is in serious need of comprehensive study. Other species in subg. Leiosperma (e.g., A. gypsostrata B. L. Turner) that occur in Mexico resemble A. lanuginosa; the nature of those relationships also requires study. We have taken the “conservative approach” of treating the two taxa that occur in the flora area as varieties. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
Variety lanuginosa occurs through much of Mexico, mostly in the mountainous areas. We find material from the southeastern United States to be indistinguishable from many Mexican specimens. Variety longipedunculata was described from two populations in Georgia and represents plants with particularly long pedicels, 40–50 mm, but this range overlaps that found otherwise in var. lanuginosa. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
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Key |
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Source | FNA vol. 5, p. 53. | FNA vol. 5, p. 53. | ||||
Parent taxa | Caryophyllaceae > subfam. Alsinoideae > Arenaria | Caryophyllaceae > subfam. Alsinoideae > Arenaria > Arenaria lanuginosa | ||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||
Synonyms | Spergulastrum lanuginosum | A. lanuginosa var. longipedunculata | ||||
Name authority | (Michaux) Rohrbach: in C. F. P. von Martius et al., Fl. Bras. 14(2): 274. (1872) | unknown | ||||
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