Boerhavia spicata
Boerhavia
creeping spiderling
spiderling
erect or ascending, sparingly branched throughout, 30–70 dm, densely glandular-villous, or glandular-puberulent, with spreading, nonglandular hairs basally, glabrous distally.
procumbent, decumbent, ascending, or erect, unarmed, with or without glutinous bands on internodes.
mostly in basal 1/2;
larger leaves with petiole 10–30 mm, blade oval, oblong, ovate, or ± triangular, 18–45 × 13–30 mm (distal leaves usually smaller, sometimes longer, proportionately narrower), adaxial surface lightly to densely glandular-pubescent, abaxial surface paler than adaxial, lightly to densely glandular-pubescent, neither surface punctate or both minutely punctate with clusters of brown cells, base truncate, round, or obtuse, margins sinuate, sometimes crisped, apex round to obtuse, rarely acute.
petiolate, pairs unequal in size in each pair;
blade thin or thick and slightly fleshy, base symmetric to asymmetric.
terminal and axillary, branched 1–4 times unequally, with sticky internodal bands;
branches strongly ascending, terminating in spicate or racemose flower clusters, axis 10–55 mm.
terminal and axillary, pedunculate or not clearly pedunculate because of repeated branching from distal axils, diffuse, and then usually widely cymose, paniculate, or thyrsiform, terminal portions cymose, racemose, spicate, subumbellate, umbellate, subcapitate, or capitate, rarely borne singly;
bracts ± persistent and not accrescent, or deciduous, 1–3 beneath each flower, distinct, lanceolate, minute, thin, translucent.
pedicel 0.4–2.3[–3.7] mm;
bracts at base of perianth usually soon deciduous, usually 2, narrowly to broadly lanceolate, 0.7–1.8 mm, apex often acuminate;
perianth white to pale pink, campanulate distal to constriction, 1–1.3 mm;
stamens (2–)3, slightly exserted or included.
bisexual, chasmogamous;
perianth radially symmetric or slightly bilaterally symmetric, campanulate or widely funnelform, constricted beyond ovaries, tube abruptly expanded to (4–)5-lobed limb;
stamens 2–8, included or exserted;
styles at or extending beyond anthers;
stigmas peltate.
5–33 per cluster, usually overlapping or 2–4 in group separated by small gap from next group, straw colored to grayish or reddish tan, broadly obovoid, 1.9–2.4(–2.8) × 1.1–1.3 mm (l/w: 1.7–2.1[–2.3]), apex rounded, glabrous;
ribs 5, obtuse-rounded to obtuse, often with low winglike ridge, slightly rugose near sulci;
sulci (0.2–)0.5 times as wide as base of ribs, slightly rugose, not papillate.
fusiform, clavate, oblong-clavate, obovoid, or obpyramidal, stiffly coriaceous;
ribs (3–)5, rounded, angular, or winglike, smooth, glabrous or glandular-pubescent;
sulci smooth or rugose, epidermal surface smooth, papillate, or minutely pubescent.
= ca. 52.
Boerhavia spicata
Boerhavia
C. F. Reed (1969) and subsequent authors have included one or more of Boerhavia coulteri, B. torreyana, and B. watsoni as synonymous with B. spicata. Even when those taxa are removed, B. spicata remains a variable species, widespread at low to middle elevations in southwestern North America, and distinguished by its mostly overlapping, obovoid fruits with rather open sulci, and the glandular pubescence on basal parts of the plant.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Species ca. 40 (16 in the flora).
Numerous authors, particularly those of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, “corrected” to Boerhaavia Linneaus’ intentional Latinization (Boerhavia) of Boerhaave’s name. Boerhavia sometimes includes Anulocaulis, Commicarpus, and Cyphomeris (F. R. Fosberg 1978). At the species level, there is variation that is often difficult to treat taxonomically, especially among annuals of the Sonoran Desert and the pantropical B. diffusa–B. coccinea complex. Many species probably are highly autogamous (R. Spellenberg 2000). P. C. Standley’s publications on the family in North America (1909, 1911, 1918) have been the basis for much of the subsequent floristic efforts, with all authors taking a more conservative approach. Nevertheless, careful examination of Boerhavia fruits indicates that some of the entities that Standley proposed represent distinct taxa. For most species in the flora, identification requires mature fruits. In this treatment, the range of ratios of length to width (l/w) of individual fruits of a species is given as a means to relate shape. Fruits from a number of Boerhavia species exude mucilage when wet (J. M. Willson and R. Spellenberg 1977).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Fruits glandular-pubescent or minutely pubescent; plants perennial | → 2 |
1. Fruits glabrous (rarely with some minute pubescence in sulci); plants annual or perennial | → 4 |
2. Leaves mostly distributed throughout plant; inflorescences axillary or terminal; branches spreading-villous or hispid to minutely and finely pubescent; flowers usually more than 5 per cluster; fruits narrowly obovate and tapering at both ends or clavate, apex round or narrowly round-conic | B. coccinea |
2. Leaves mostly concentrated in basal 1/2 of plant; inflorescences mostly terminal; branches glabrate or glabrous; flowers usually borne singly or up to 5 per cluster, occasionally more; fruits oblong-clavate or obpyramidal, apex round, broadly conic, or truncate | → 3 |
3. Perianths wine red or brick red, 2-4.5 mm; stamens well exserted; flowers usually borne singly on slender pedicels; fruits oblong-clavate, minutely pubescent, some- times with minute gland-tipped hairs | B. gracillima |
3. Perianths purplish red to reddish pink or nearly white, 1-1.5 mm; stamens included or barely exserted; flowers usually in tight clusters of 2-5 at ends of branches; fruits obpyramidal, conspicuously stipitate-glandular | B. diffusa |
4. Plants perennial; fruit ribs rounded or bluntly round-angled | → 5 |
4. Plants annual; fruit ribs obtusely to acutely angled, ribs sometimes winglike, rarely bluntly round-angled | → 8 |
5. Bracts at base of perianths soon deciduous after anthesis; perianths wine red to brick red; sulci of fruit usually smooth | B. gracillima |
5. Bracts at base of perianths persistent; perianths red-pink, pink-lavender, pink, or white; sulci of fruit smooth or papillate | → 6 |
6. Leaves linear to lanceolate, rarely ovate; perianths 4-7 mm; stamens usually 5; surface of sulci smooth. | B. linearifolia |
6. Leaves ovate to round; perianths 2.5-10 mm; stamens 3-8; surface of sulci minutely papillate | → 7 |
7. Perianths 5-10 mm; stamens (4-)5-8; edges of fruit ribs rounded, not overhanging sulci | B. anisophylla |
7. Perianths 2.5-3 mm; stamens 3-5; edges of fruit ribs sharp, slightly over- hanging sulci | B. ciliata |
8. Branches of inflorescence densely glandular-villous, rarely minutely pubescent or glabrous, without sticky bands on distal internodes; bracts at base of perianth 1.5-4 mm, ovate (occasionally lance-acuminate in B. wrightii), persistent; fruits 4- or 5-ribbed, ribs never winglike | → 9 |
8. Branches of inflorescence usually glabrous, sometimes minutely pubescent but not glandular, often with sticky bands on distal internodes; bracts at base of perianth 0.4-1.8 mm, usually lanceolate or narrower, deciduous; fruits (3-)5-ribbed, ribs sometimes winglike | → 10 |
9. Fruits 4(-5)-ribbed; inflorescences racemose or spicate, axis 10-35 mm | B. wrightii |
9. Fruits 5-ribbed; inflorescences subcapitate or capitate, axis 0-2.5 mm | B. purpurascens |
10. Terminal portions of inflorescences spicate or racemose | → 11 |
10. Terminal portions of inflorescences subracemose, subumbellate, umbellate, or capitate, or flowers borne singly | → 13 |
11. Fruits broadly obovoid (l/w: usually 1.7-2.1), usually overlapping in inflorescence; sulci and ribs slightly rugose; sulci usually about 0.5 times as wide as base of ribs; stems usually glandular and spreading-pilose basally | B. spicata |
11. Fruits narrowly obovoid or obpyramidal (l/w: usually 2.1-3.1), overlapping in inflorescence or remote; sulci and ribs slightly rugose to smooth; sulci 0.1-1 times as wide as base of ribs; stems puberulent, often sparsely pilose, rarely glandular basally | → 12 |
12. Epidermal surface of sulci papillose; sulci 0.5-1 times as wide as base of ribs; sides of ribs strongly rugose | B. torreyana |
12. Epidermal surface of sulci glabrous; sulci 0.1-0.3 times as wide as base of ribs; sides of ribs smooth or slightly rugose | B. coulteri |
13. Fruits 3-4(-5)-ribbed, ribs acute or winglike | → 14 |
14. Inflorescences capitate clusters on short peduncles among leaves and terminal on branches; fruit tapering to stipelike base distal to pedicels | B. pterocarpa |
14. Inflorescences repeatedly forked, ending in umbels or single flowers, usually well beyond leaves; fruit tapering to pedicels, without stipelike base | B. triquetra |
13. Fruits (3-)-5-ribbed, ribs winglike or not | → 15 |
15. Sulci of fruits smooth or very slightly rugose; fruits with 5 winglike ribs | B. megaptera |
15. Sulci of fruits slightly to prominently rugose; fruits with (4-)5 angular ribs | → 16 |
16. Terminal flower clusters usually precise umbels, all pedicels attaching at 1 node; occasionally terminal inflorescences 1-flowered; fruits 2-3.2 mm | B. intermedia |
16. Terminal flower clusters irregularly umbellate or subracemose, at least some pedicels attaching well below others; terminal inflorescences rarely 1-flowered; fruits 2.7-4 mm | B. erecta |
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