Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Bacopa

water-hyssop
Habit Herbs, annual or perennial, emergent or submerged, sometimes rooting from proximal nodes.
Stems

prostrate or erect, glabrous or slightly hairy.
Leaves

cauline, opposite [whorled];

petiole obscure or absent;

blade fleshy (B. monnieri) or not, not leathery, margins entire, crenate, or serrate.
Inflorescences

axillary, flowers solitary or in pairs;

bracts absent.
Pedicels

present or absent;

bracteoles present [absent].
Flowers

bisexual;

sepals 4 or 5, distinct, outer wider than inner, ovate, lanceolate, or oblong, calyx radially or bilaterally symmetric, campanulate;

corolla white (sometimes with yellow throat), pink, or violet-blue, radially or bilaterally (B. repens) symmetric, regular or weakly bilabiate, rotate or campanulate, rarely tubular, tube base not spurred or gibbous, throat not densely pilose internally, lobes 4 or 5, abaxial 2 or 3, adaxial 2;

stamens 2–4, adnate to corolla, didynamous or equal, filaments glabrous;

staminode 0;

ovary 2-locular, placentation axile;

stigmas peltately flattened and semicapitate.
Fruits

capsules, dehiscence septicidal-loculicidal or loculicidal.
Seeds

80–120, brownish black, ellipsoid to cylindric, reticulate, wings absent.
× = 14.

Bacopa
Distribution
from USDA
North America; Mexico; Central America; South America; West Indies; s Europe; Asia; Africa; Indian Ocean Islands (Madagascar); Australia
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Species ca. 70 (7 in the flora).

Bacopa laxiflora (Bentham) Wettstein ex Edwall, native to Central America and South America, has been introduced to Mexico and may be expected in the flora area. Plants of B. laxiflora resemble B. monnieri; they differ by erect stems and acute leaf blade apices.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Leaf blades 1-nerved.
B. monnieri
1. Leaf blades (3–)5–9+-nerved.
→ 2
2. Plants aromatic; bracteoles present; corollas violet-blue with violet-blue throats.
B. caroliniana
2. Plants not aromatic; bracteoles absent; corollas white with yellow or white throats or pink with pink throats.
→ 3
3. Leaf blade bases narrowly cuneate.
→ 4
4. Leaf blade margins crenate.
B. egensis
4. Leaf blade margins entire.
B. repens
3. Leaf blade bases broadly cuneate to truncate.
→ 5
5. Pedicels 6–10 mm; corollas 2–5 mm, white with white throats.
B. innominata
5. Pedicels 9–51 mm; corollas 5–14 mm, white with yellow throats.
→ 6
6. Pedicels 9–15 mm; corollas 5–10 mm.
B. rotundifolia
6. Pedicels 17–51 mm; corollas 10–14 mm.
B. eisenii
Source FNA vol. 17, p. 260. Author: Adjoa Richardson Ahedor.
Parent taxa Plantaginaceae
Subordinate taxa
B. caroliniana, B. egensis, B. eisenii, B. innominata, B. monnieri, B. repens, B. rotundifolia
Name authority Aublet: Hist. Pl. Guiane 1: 128, plate 49. (1775) — name conserved
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America, UW Burke Herbarium

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers