Flora of North America species comparison

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Chamaesaracha sordida

Chamaesaracha

hairy five eyes

five eyes
Habit Herbs, perennial, spreading, rhizomatous, glabrous or variously pubescent, hairs eglandular or glandular.
Herbage

densely pubescent, viscid, hairs simple, mostly glandular.

Stems

decumbent to suberect, green, 1–3 dm (1.5 mm diam.).

decumbent to ± prostrate or suberect, branching from base and nodes.
Leaves

subsessile;

blade oblanceolate to rhombic, 1.5–4 × 0.4–0.8(–1) cm, length 4–5 times width, margins sinuate or lobed.

alternate, subsessile or petiolate;

blade simple, ± undulate, entire to deeply lobed.
Inflorescences

1–2-flowered.

axillary, (1–)2–4(–5)-flowered clusters;

pedicels slender, 1–3 cm, elongating to 2.5–3.5 and becoming curved in fruit.
Flowers

calyx 4–5 mm, pubescent, especially along lobe margins;

corolla 10–15 mm diam.

5-merous;

calyx accrescent, campanulate, 5-lobed, in fruit not inflated and shorter than berry;

corolla creamy white to light yellow, rotate;

stamens equal;

filaments inserted near base of corolla tube;

anthers basifixed, oblong, dehiscing by longitudinal slits;

ovary 2-carpellate;

style straight to slightly curved, slender;

stigma capitate.
Fruits

dry berries, globose, tightly invested by, not enclosed by, accrescent calyx.
Berries

5–8 mm diam. 2n = 24.

Seeds

flattened, reniform rugose-reticulate.
x

= 12.

Chamaesaracha sordida

Chamaesaracha
Phenology Flowering Mar–Oct (mostly late spring–early summer, depending on rain).
Habitat Deserts, dry, open grasslands.
Elevation 0–2000 m. (0–6600 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CA; NM; TX; Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas)
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from USDA
sw United States; sc United States; n Mexico
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Chamaesaracha sordida is known from western Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. It is most closely related to C. coronopus and differs in having broader, mostly entire leaves. It is also similar to C. pallida; it lacks the relatively dense dendritic hairs on the leaves and has a generally more eastern distribution. Herbarium specimens from 2007 and 2008 indicate that it has been introduced into southern California (Clark Mountain Range, San Bernardino County) and may be naturalizing.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Species 10 (8 in the flora).

Chamaesaracha is commonly encountered in the Sonoran and Chihuahuan deserts and arid grasslands of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. It is distinguished from other Physalideae Miers by the dry berry and closely appressed, accrescent calyx that does not completely enclose the fruit, and by rugose-reticulate seeds. Chamaesaracha nana (A. Gray) A. Gray was transferred to Leucophysalis (J. E. Averett 1970). Chamaesaracha geohintonii Averett & B. L. Turner and C. rzedowskiana Hunziker occur in Mexico.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Leaf blades 4–10 times as long as wide; herbage glabrous or sparsely pubescent, hairs white and short-stellate.
C. coronopus
1. Leaf blades 2–5 times as long as wide; herbage glabrous to densely pubescent, hairs simple, 1-branched, or dendritic.
→ 2
2. Herbage glabrous or glabrate.
C. edwardsiana
2. Herbage pubescent (rarely glabrous in C. pallida).
→ 3
3. Herbage with hairs dendritic, eglandular (rarely glabrous in C. pallida).
→ 4
4. Leaf blades broadly lanceolate to rhombic, margins entire to sinuate or lobed.
C. pallida
4. Leaf blades linear-lanceolate or oblanceolate to rhombic, margins shallowly to deeply lobed (sometimes only a few lobes).
→ 5
5. Leaf blade margins deeply lobed; Oklahoma, nc Texas.
C. darcyi
5. Leaf blade margins shallowly to deeply lobed; Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas.
C. coniodes
3. Herbage pubescent with hairs simple or 1-branched, glandular or eglandular.
→ 6
6. Stems 1–3 dm; leaf blades 0.4–2 cm wide; Arizona, California, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas.
→ 7
7. Herbage densely glandular-pubescent; leaf blade margins sinuate or lobed.
C. sordida
7. Herbage densely pubescent, hairs glandular and eglandular; leaf blade margins ± lobed.
C. coniodes
6. Stems (1.5–)2–5 dm; leaf blades 1.5–3.5 cm wide; Big Bend region of Texas.
→ 8
8. Herbage not villous, hairs simple, long and eglandular intermixed with shorter glandular; petioles 1/3 total leaf length.
C. crenata
8. Herbage villous, hairs mostly elongate, eglandular, 1-branched at tip; petioles to 1/4 total leaf length.
C. villosa
Source FNA vol. 14. FNA vol. 14. Author: John E. Averett†.
Parent taxa Solanaceae > Chamaesaracha Solanaceae
Sibling taxa
C. coniodes, C. coronopus, C. crenata, C. darcyi, C. edwardsiana, C. pallida, C. villosa
Subordinate taxa
C. coniodes, C. coronopus, C. crenata, C. darcyi, C. edwardsiana, C. pallida, C. sordida, C. villosa
Synonyms Withania sordida Saracha
Name authority (Dunal) A. Gray in A. Gray et al.: Syn. Fl. N. Amer. 2(1): 232. (1878) (A. Gray) Bentham & Hooker f.: Gen. Pl. 2: 891. (1876)
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).



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