Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Corispermum pacificum

Corispermum hookeri

common bugseed, Pacific bug-seed

Hooker bugseed, Hooker's bugseed
Habit Plants usually branched from base, (5–)15–40 cm, glabrous or sparsely covered with dendroid hairs (especially when young). Plants branched from base, 10–40(–60) cm, sparsely covered with dendroid and almost stellate hairs.
Leaf

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

blades narrowly lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, plane, 2–5 × (0.1–)0.2–0.5(–0.6) cm.
Bracts

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

ovate or ovate-lanceolate, 0.5–1.5(–2) × 0.3–1 cm.
Inflorescences

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

usually dense, ovoid, ovate-clavate, or ovate-cylindric, rarely interrupted near base.
Perianth

segment 1, sometimes absent in distal flowers.

segment 1.
Fruits

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.

usually deep olive green, brown, or rarely to almost black, usually without spots and/or warts, or occasionally spotted, strongly convex abaxially, prominently concave to almost plane adaxially, usually broadest beyond middle, (3.2–)3.5–4.5(–5) × 2.2–3.3(–3.5) mm;

wing (when present) semitranslucent, to 0.2 mm wide, margins entire, apex rounded or indistinctly triangular.

Corispermum pacificum

Corispermum hookeri
Phenology Flowering late summer–fall.
Habitat Sandy shores, dunes
Elevation 0-500 m (0-1600 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
ID; OR; WA
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
AB; BC; MB; NT; ON; SK
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

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.)

Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).

The inflorescence bracts of Corispermum hookeri are conspicuously imbricate (usually strongly overlapping). Corispermum hookeri seems to be closely related to the narrow-winged taxa, C. villosum and C. ochotense, and to C. pallasii sensu stricto. The names C. orientale and C. hyssopifolium have been commonly misapplied to this species.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Inflorescences dense throughout, rarely interrupted. Fruits oblong-obovate to obovate
var. hookeri
1. Inflorescences dense only at apex, interrupted. Fruits elongate to oblong-obovate
var. pseudodeclinatu
Source FNA vol. 4, p. 319. FNA vol. 4, p. 318.
Parent taxa Chenopodiaceae > Corispermum Chenopodiaceae > Corispermum
Sibling taxa
C. americanum, C. hookeri, C. hyssopifolium, C. navicula, C. nitidum, C. ochotense, C. pallasii, C. pallidum, C. villosum, C. welshii
C. americanum, C. hyssopifolium, C. navicula, C. nitidum, C. ochotense, C. pacificum, C. pallasii, C. pallidum, C. villosum, C. welshii
Subordinate taxa
C. hookeri var. hookeri, C. hookeri var. pseudodeclinatu
Name authority Mosyakin: Novon 5: 345, fig. 1A. (1995) Mosyakin: Novon 5: 349. (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).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Fabaceae, Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America, OregonFlora, UW Burke Herbarium

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers