Flora of North America species comparison

profusely branched (erect or spreading and matlike); glaucous, scabrous.

usually erect, sometimes spreading or procumbent; branched or unbranched.

stipules finely divided into crinkled threads, 2 mm;

petiole 0.1–0.3 cm;

leaflet blade linear-obovate, 0.5–1.5 × 0.1–0.3 cm, fleshy, margins entire, apex obtuse to acute, mucronate, surfaces scabrous.

alternate, spirally arranged (usually palmately compound, sometimes simple);

venation pinnate;

stipules usually present (usually caducous, sometimes deciduous, 3–8-palmatifid, linear, threadlike, minute, scalelike, or absent, nodal (stipular) spines present in Tarenaya and Hemiscola);

petiole present (pulvinus usually present, nectaries absent, petiolar spines sometimes present, petiolules present);

blade margins entire, serrate, or serrulate.

solitary flowers in axils of closely spaced leaves throughout;

bracts unifoliate, 8–10 mm.

terminal or axillary, usually racemose, sometimes flat-topped, or flowers solitary (usually elongated in fruit);

bud scales absent;

bracts present or absent (unifoliate, often trifoliate proximally, bracteoles absent).

reflexed in fruit, 1–2 mm.

present.

sepals green, ovate, 0.8–1.2 × 0.3–0.7 mm, glabrous;

petals pale yellow, oblong, 1.5–2 × 0.5–1 mm, glabrous;

stamens yellow, 1.5–2.2 mm;

anthers 0.3–0.5 mm;

gynophore strongly reflexed, 0.5–3 mm in fruit;

ovary globose, 1–1.5 mm;

style 2–3(–5) mm.

usually bisexual (developmentally unisexual within sections of racemes), actinomorphic or slightly zygomorphic, rotate to crateriform, campanulate, or urceolate;

perianth and androecium hypogynous;

sepals persistent or deciduous, 4, distinct or connate basally;

petals 4, attached directly to receptacle, imbricate, distinct, equal or unequal;

intrastaminal nectary-discs, scales, or glands present or absent;

stamens [4–]6–27[–35];

filaments free or basally adnate to gynophore (or along proximal 1/3–1/2 in Gynandropsis) or androgynophore, glabrous or pubescent;

anthers dehiscing by longitudinal slits, pollen shed in single grains, binucleate, commonly tricolporate;

gynophore present or absent;

pistil 1;

ovary 1-carpellate (except 2 in Oxystylis), 2-locular;

placentation parietal;

ovules 1–18(–26+) per locule, anatropous, bitegmic;

style 1 (straight, relatively short, thick, not spinelike in fruit, except in Oxystylis, sometimes in Wislizenia);

stigma 1, capitate, unlobed.

capsular or nutlets (usually stipitate from elongation of gynophore, erect to divergent, usually not inflated), valvate, elongate (± dehiscent by 2 lateral valves, except in Polanisia), or schizocarps (inflated in Peritoma arborea), indehiscent or dehiscent.

globose or deltoid, 2–3 × 2–3.2 mm, glabrous, (valves triangular).

1–4, yellowish, globose, 1.3–1.7 mm, smooth.

1–65[–200], tan, yellowish brown, light brown, pale green, brown, reddish brown, silver-gray, or gray to black (papillose or tuberculate); arillate or not;

endosperm scanty or absent, persistent perisperm sometimes present;

cotyledons incumbent, (radicle-hypocotyl elongated).