Flora of North America species comparison

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Corispermum americanum

Corispermum pacificum

American bug-seed, common bug-seed

common bugseed, Pacific bug-seed
Habit Plants branched from or beyond base (rarely simple or with few simple branches), 10–35(–50) cm, sparsely covered with dendroid or stellate hairs, often becoming glabrous. Plants usually branched from base, (5–)15–40 cm, glabrous or sparsely covered with dendroid hairs (especially when young).
Leaf

blades linear or narrowly linear (occasionally linear-lanceolate or almost filiform), usually plane or occasionally folded (especially in dry plants), 1.5–3.5(–4) × 0.1–0.3 cm.

blades narrowly lanceolate, linear-lanceolate, or linear, flat or nearly so, 2–5(–7) × 0.2–0.6 cm.
Bracts

ovate-lanceolate,lanceolate, linear-lanceolate, or occasionally proximal ones almost linear, much longer than distal, 0.5–2(–3.5) × (0.2–)0.3–0.7 cm.

ovate-lanceolate, narrowly ovate-lanceolate, almost ovate, or lanceolate, (1–)1.5–2.5 × 0.3–0.7(–0.9) cm.
Inflorescences

usually lax, interrupted, rarely ± condensed distally, linear, narrowly linear, or occasionally narrowly clavate.

usually compact, rather dense, or sometimes ± lax, condensed only near apex, ovoid, oblong-ovate, obovate, broadly linear, or occasionally clavate.
Perianth

segment 1.

segment 1, sometimes absent in distal flowers.
Fruits

yellowish brown, greenish brown, light brown, or brown, often with reddish brown spots and whitish warts, slightly convex abaxially, usually plane or slightly concave adaxially, obovate or obovate-elliptic, usually broadest beyond middle, (2.3–)2.5–4.5 × 2–3.5 mm, shiny or dull;

wing translucent, thin, (occasionally translucent only at margin, thick), (0.15–)0.2–0.3(–0.4) mm wide, margins entire or rarely indistinctly erose, apex broadly triangular, less commonly truncate or rounded.

usually black (rarely deep olive green, especially when immature), sharply contrasting with greenish semitransparent wings, without spots and warts, slightly convex abaxially, flat or slightly concave adaxially, orbiculate-obovate to almost orbiculate, broadest near middle (or occasionally slightly beyond), 3–4 × 2.7–3.8 mm, shiny;

wing translucent, thin, (0.2–)0.3–0.6 mm wide, margins slightly undulate or indistinctly erose-denticulate, apex rounded or occasionally indistinctly notched.

Corispermum americanum

Corispermum pacificum
Phenology Flowering late summer–fall.
Habitat Sandy shores, dunes
Elevation 0-500 m (0-1600 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AR; AZ; CA; CO; ID; IL; IN; KS; MN; MO; MT; ND; NE; NJ; NM; NV; NY; OH; OK; OR; SD; TX; UT; WA; WI; WY; AB; BC; MB; ON; QC; SK; Mexico
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from FNA
ID; OR; WA
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[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).

Corispermum americanum var. americanum may also occur in British Columbia, where only immature specimens have been seen. Specimens from Oregon and Wyoming are transitional toward Corispermum villosum. The names C. hyssopifolium and C. nitidum were commonly misapplied to this native species by many authors (see also note under C. nitidum).

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

Of conservation concern.

Corispermum pacificum seems to be closely related to Siberian C. crassifolium Turczaninov and C. maynense Ignatov. The latter species occurs in the northeastern Russian Far East and may be expected to occur in Alaska. Corispermum pacificum differs from C. maynense by its usually more robust habit, and its wing rounded (rarely rounded-truncate or indistinctly emarginate, but not triangular) at apex. From C. crassifolium it may be distinguished by the constant presence of perianth segments, and more flattened black mature fruits. Corispermum pacificum probably also occurs in adjacent regions of British Columbia. Corispermum pacificum is placed in subsect. Crassifolia (S. L. Mosyakin 1997). This subsection seems to be of Siberian origin, with its central species, C. crassifolium, being closest to the hypothetic ancestral taxon. The presence of perianth segments in C. pacificum may be explained by ancient hybridization with representatives of subsect. Pallasiana.

Reproductive isolation between the sympatric species of Corispermum may be achieved by different flowering periods. Occasional hybrids between C. pacificum and C. villosum are similar in their habit to C. pacificum in having usually broad leaves and rather dense inflorescences but they have mostly aborted fruits suggesting that C. pacificum and C. villosum are taxonomically distant species.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Fruits (2.3-)2.5-3.5 mm, wing usually 0.2-0.3 mm wide (occasionally fruits almost wingless in some southwestern plants)
var. ameri
1. Fruits (3-)3.5-4(-4.5) mm, wing usually 0.3-0.4(-0.5) mm wide.
var. rydbe
Source FNA vol. 4. FNA vol. 4, p. 319.
Parent taxa Chenopodiaceae > Corispermum Chenopodiaceae > Corispermum
Sibling taxa
C. hookeri, C. hyssopifolium, C. navicula, C. nitidum, C. ochotense, C. pacificum, C. pallasii, C. pallidum, C. villosum, C. welshii
C. americanum, C. hookeri, C. hyssopifolium, C. navicula, C. nitidum, C. ochotense, C. pallasii, C. pallidum, C. villosum, C. welshii
Subordinate taxa
C. americanum var. ameri, C. americanum var. rydbe
Synonyms C. hyssopifolium var. americanum, C. imbricatum, C. marginale, C. simplicissimum
Name authority (Nuttall) Nuttall: Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc., n. s. 5: 165. (1834) Mosyakin: Novon 5: 345, fig. 1A. (1995)
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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