Cuphea glutinosa
Cuphea aspera
sticky waxweed
tropical waxweed
often several from base, erect to decumbent, branched or unbranched, glandular-hispid and puberulent.
erect, usually unbranched, sometimes with 1 or 2 long branches from near base, minutely white-strigose and purple glandular-setose, especially viscid on youngest internodes.
opposite, sessile or subsessile;
petiole 0–1 mm;
blade ovate-lanceolate to oblong or elliptic, 5–15[–20] × 2–7[–10] mm, base cuneate to rounded.
3- or 4-whorled at mid stem, sessile;
blade lanceolate, or linear distally, 10–25 × 1.5–5 mm, base rounded.
leafy.
bracteate, ± terminal.
0–3 mm.
4–25 mm.
alternate, solitary, interpetiolar;
floral tube green abaxially, purple adaxially, 5.5–8(–9) × 2–2.5 mm, sparsely glandular-hispid;
base rounded, 0.5 mm;
inner surface glabrous proximally, villous distal to stamens;
epicalyx segments thick, not terminated by a bristle;
sepals equal;
petals (2–)6, oblanceolate or oblong, unequal, 4 abaxial ones pale purple and 4–4.7 × 2.5–2.8 mm, 2 adaxial ones purple [deep purple or with deep purple midvein] and 4 × 1.5–1.9 mm;
stamens 11, reaching or surpassing sinus of sepals.
opposite or 3- or 4-whorled;
floral tube often fading abaxially, red-purple to rose adaxially, 7–9 × 1–2 mm, white-strigose, veins purple glandular-setose;
base rounded or a descending spur, 1 mm;
inner surface glabrous proximally, villous distal to stamens;
epicalyx segments thick, often terminated by a bristle;
sepals equal;
petals 6, pale purple or pink, cuneate-oblong, subequal, 3–4.5 × 0.6–1 mm;
stamens 11, reaching or surpassing sinus of sepals.
8–13(–20), suborbiculate in outline, 1.5–2 × 1.5–1.7 mm, margin rounded.
3, orbiculate in outline, 2.5 × 2.5 mm, margin rounded.
= 28, 32 (Bolivia), 34 (Paraguay).
= 48.
Cuphea glutinosa
Cuphea aspera
First noted in the United States in 1884 in Vermilion Parish, Louisiana, Cuphea glutinosa is now more widespread in southern Louisiana and occurs in four counties in eastern Texas. The species is agamospermous in the United States, with sterile pollen but producing abundant seed. Sexually reproductive plants occur in eastern Brazil.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Cuphea aspera is known from Calhoun, Franklin, and Gulf counties. Its morphological relationships are with species of eastern Brazil. An ancestral form may have been carried northward from Brazil along the storm tracks that are noted for passage across the Apalachicola area where this species persists. It is listed in the Center for Plant Conservation’s National Collection of Endangered Plants.
Parsonsia lythroides Small is an illegitimate name that pertains here.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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