Flora of North America species comparison

mainly 0.5–4(–5) dm;

stems usually branched from base, terete, stout, angled;

herbage scurfy.

branching, diffuse or procumbent, softly scurfy-tomentose.

alternate or proximalmost subopposite, short petiolate or distal ones sessile;

petiole 2–5 mm;

blade cordate-ovate or subreniform to ovate to deltoid-ovate or oval, mainly 6–40 × 4–30 mm, base truncate to subcordate or broadly cuneate, margin entire or in some subhastately lobed or sometimes undulate-dentate, apex acute to rounded.

alternate;

petiole to 1/2 as long as blade;

blade obovate or rhombic to deltoid, 10–30 mm, base obtuse, margin sinuate to serrate, apex irregularly toothed, acute.

in axillary glomerules, staminate in distal axils surrounded by pistillate flowers, these only and usually few together in most axils, very small and globular at anthesis.

usually in fascicles of 1–3 in proximal axils.

brownish to whitish, 1.5–2.3 mm.

broadly elliptic;

radical lateral, erect.

glomerules in distal axils or in short, naked, terminal (early deciduous) panicles;

flowers with 5-parted calyx.

bracteoles monomorphic or dimorphic, larger ones on stipes (2–)4–8(–15) mm, others sessile, united at base, round-triangular or suborbicular, 4–6 mm, irregularly and coarsely dentate and with ± densely beset with flat, cristate, or hornlike appendages, smaller bracteoles (lacking or rare in var. asterocarpa) in same axils, oblong to cuneate, 3–4 mm, apex truncate, dentate only at summit, faces smooth.

bracteoles sessile, obovoid-globular, fused, scarcely compressed, 8–12 mm, of loosely fibrous and spongy consistency, with thin membranous epidermis and thin, inner membrane, opening at summit closed by 2 erect, appressed, entire or 3-toothed valves, apex shortly apiculate, not flattened at top.

= 18.