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Welsh's bugseed

Leaf

blades linear-lanceolate or linear, usually plane (or rarely slightly convolute or folded in dried plants), 1–6 × 0.2–0.5 cm.

Bracts

ovate or ovate-lanceolate (rarely narrowly ovate-lanceolate), 1–3 × 0.3–0.8 cm.

Inflorescences

usually compact and dense, rarely ± lax, and condensed only at apex, ovoid, oblong-obovate, or oblong-clavate.

Perianth

segment 1.

Fruits

yellowish brown, light brown, or brown, usually with reddish brown spots and whitish warts, strongly to slightly convex abaxially, usually concave adaxially, obovate or orbiculate-obovate, usually broadest slightly beyond middle (occasionally almost near middle), (3.3–)3.7–4.6 × (2.7–)3–3.6 mm, slightly shiny or dull;

wing translucent, thin, (rarely translucent only at margin, thicker), (0.3–)0.4–0.6 mm wide, margins entire or irregularly minutely erose-denticulate, apex rounded, truncate, or indistinctly emarginate.

Plant

branched from base or nearly so, 10–35 cm, densely or sparsely covered with dendroid or stellate hairs (rarely with scattered papillae at margins of bracts).

Corispermum welshii

Phenology Flowering late summer–fall.
Habitat Sand dunes, sandy shores of creeks and rivers, dry valleys
Elevation 1300-2200 m (4300-7200 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; NM; UT; WY
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

The names Corispermum hyssopifolium and C. villosum have been misapplied to C. welshii. Judging from its fruit morphology, C. welshii is closely related to C. americanum, especially to var. rydbergii. Forms intermediate between these taxa occasionally occur, especially in Utah. However, C. welshii differs from C. americanum in having shorter and thicker inflorescences and broader leaves and bracts. Forms similar to C. welshii occur also in other southwestern states, particularly in Colorado and western Texas. These plants are in need of additional study.

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

Source FNA vol. 4, p. 317.
Parent taxa Chenopodiaceae > Corispermum
Sibling taxa
C. americanum, C. hookeri, C. hyssopifolium, C. navicula, C. nitidum, C. ochotense, C. pacificum, C. pallasii, C. pallidum, C. villosum
Name authority Mosyakin: Novon 5: 348, fig. 1E. (1995)
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