Flora of North America species comparison

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Crotalaria incana

Crotalaria avonensis

fuzzy rattlepod, shake-shake, wooly rattlepod

avon park rattlebox
Habit Herbs perennial.
Plants

of the latter are characterized as shrubs or creeping herbs, the stems with long, yellow-brown, spreading hairs (versus shorter, more appressed hairs in subsp. incana), inflorescence bracts usually 4–10 (versus 1–3) mm, and calyx lobes pilose (versus glabrate).

Stems

erect to slightly spreading, 2–10 cm, strigose to sericeous.
Leaves

unifoliolate;

stipules absent;

blade oblong, elliptic to ovate, or suborbiculate, (5–)8–19 mm, length 1.3–3.5 times width, surfaces loosely strigose-sericeous.
Racemes

(1 or)2–8-flowered, terminal, subterminal, or lateral, 2–6 cm;

bracts persistent, linear-triangular.
Flowers

calyx cylindrical, 7–8 mm, lobes triangular-lanceolate, loosely strigose;

corolla bright yellow, 8–9 mm.
Legumes

14–25 × 6–8 mm, glabrous or sparsely strigose on abaxial suture.
Both

subspecies of Crotalaria incana are native to southeast Africa, where they are partially sympatric.

Subspecies

purpurascens (Lamarck) Milne-Redhead occurs also in Madagascar.

Crotalaria incana

Crotalaria avonensis
Phenology Flowering Mar–Jun.
Habitat White sands, scrub dominated by Florida rosemary, oaks, and/or sand pine, disturbed areas along roads and trails.
Elevation 30–50 m. (100–200 ft.)
Distribution
from USDA
Africa; intro­duced widely [Introduced in North America]
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
FL
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Varieties 2 (1 in the flora).

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

Crotalaria avonensis is known only from northern Highlands and southern Polk counties on the Lake Wales Ridge; it is in the Center for Plant Conservation’s National Collection of Endangered Plants.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 11. FNA vol. 11.
Parent taxa Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Crotalaria Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae > Crotalaria
Sibling taxa
C. avonensis, C. juncea, C. lanceolata, C. ochroleuca, C. pallida, C. pumila, C. purshii, C. retusa, C. rotundifolia, C. sagittalis, C. spectabilis, C. trichotoma, C. verrucosa, C. virgulata
C. incana, C. juncea, C. lanceolata, C. ochroleuca, C. pallida, C. pumila, C. purshii, C. retusa, C. rotundifolia, C. sagittalis, C. spectabilis, C. trichotoma, C. verrucosa, C. virgulata
Subordinate taxa
C. incana var. incana
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 716. (1753) DeLaney & Wunderlin: Sida 13: 315, figs. 1–5. (1989)
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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