Celosia argentea
Celosia
plumed cockscomb, silver cock's comb
cock's comb
erect, to 1 m, glabrous.
erect or clambering-straggling.
petiole 1–3 cm;
blade unlobed, ovate, lanceolate, or nearly linear, 8–15 × 1–6 cm, base tapering, apex long-acuminate.
alternate, petiolate;
blade mostly lanceolate, ovate, or deltate.
dense cylindric or ovoid spikes, units 13–20 mm diam.
terminal and often axillary spikes or panicles, often fasciated in cultivated forms, many-flowered.
tepals silvery white or pinkish, 3-veined, 6–8 mm, scarious, translucent;
style elongate, 4 mm, indurate and exserted at maturity;
stigmas 3.
bisexual;
tepals 3–5, distinct, membranous or scarious, usually glabrous;
filaments connate basally into cups;
anthers 4-locular;
pseudostaminodes absent;
ovules 3–many;
style persistent, 0.2–4 mm;
stigmas 2–3, capitate or subulate.
3–8, 1.5 mm diam., smooth, shiny.
(2–)3–many, black, flattened.
4 mm.
ovoid, membranaceous, dehiscence centrally circumscissile.
= 9.
= 72.
Celosia argentea
Celosia
Celosia argentea is locally escaped from cultivation, and perhaps originally native to India.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Species ca. 65 (5 in the flora).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Styles 3-4 mm; inflorescences dense, cylindric, 13-20 mm diam. spikes, or fasciated, crested or plumose | → 2 |
1. Styles 0.2-1 mm; inflorescences lax spikes or panicles, units less than 10 mm diam | → 3 |
2. Inflorescences cylindric or ovoid spikes; tepals silvery white or pinkish | C. argentea |
2. Inflorescences fasciated, crested, or plumose; tepals pink, red, yellow, purple, or white | C. cristata |
3. Plants annual herbs; tepals silvery, whitish, or tannish, 1-veined, 2-3 mm | C. trigyna |
3. Plants perennial herbs, subshrubs, or shrubs; tepals green, greenish white, pinkish green, or white with reddish base, drying tan, striate, 3.5-6(-7) mm | → 4 |
4. Leaf blades deltate to triangular-lanceolate, not lobed; stigmas 3. | C. nitida |
4. Leaf blades moderately hastate, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate; stigmas 2. | C. palmeri |
LA Plants
MD Biodiversity
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