Flora of North America species comparison

erect to ascending, 10–75 cm, glabrous or with scattered appressed hairs (especially near nodes);

branches arcuate.

prostrate to ascending, often mat-forming, 7–35 cm, glabrous, pilose, or villous.

alternate;

petiole 0.1–0.4 mm, often indistinct, glabrous or sparsely pilose to shortly sericeous;

blade linear to linear-elliptic, 20–55 × 1–3 mm, base attenuate, margins entire or with 2–4 inconspicuous teeth near apex, apex acute, abaxial surface pilose to shortly sericeous, adaxial surface usually glabrous, rarely pilose to shortly sericeous;

only midvein conspicuous.

opposite;

stipules distinct, divided nearly to base into 3–5 subulate to filiform segments, these sometimes 2-fid toward apex or laciniate, 0.7–2.1 mm, glabrous;

petiole 0.5–1 mm, glabrous, villous, or pilose;

blade ovate, oblong, elliptic, or obovate, 3–13 × 2–7 mm, base asymmetric, rounded to oblique, margins usually entire in proximal 1/2 and serrulate in distal 1/2, rarely serrulate nearly to base, apex obtuse or truncate, surfaces often with red spot in center, not papillate, glabrous, villous, or pilose; weakly 3-veined from base, usually only midvein conspicuous.

obconic, 2.1–2.6 × 1.3–2 mm, canescent;

involucral lobes triangular, obscured by hairs;

glands (2–)4–5, green to maroon, color often obscured by hairs, sessile and broadly attached, 0.5–0.6 × 0.5–0.6 mm, opening oblong to nearly circular, densely canescent;

appendages petaloid, whitish, hoodlike, incurved and covering glands, 0.5–1 × 0.5–0.8 mm, divided into 5–12 fringed, subulate segments, densely canescent.

obconic, 0.6–1.1 × 0.6–1 mm, glabrous, villous, or pilose;

glands 4, yellow to pink, usually oblong to reniform, 0.1 × 0.2–0.3 mm;

appendages white to pink, oblong or flabellate, rarely absent, (0–)0.1–0.2 × (0–)0.3–0.4 mm, distal margin entire or shallowly lobed.

20–25.

5–20.

ovary canescent;

styles 0.9–1.5 mm, unbranched.

ovary glabrous, villous, or pilose;

styles 0.3–0.4 mm, 2-fid 1/2 length.

oblong to ovoid, 4.4–4.9 × 3.5–4.1 mm, canescent (often with interspersed glabrescent patches);

columella 3.5–3.9 mm.

broadly ovoid to oblate, cocci not elongated nor terminating in empty portion, 1.4–1.9 × 1.5–2, glabrous, pilose, or villous;

columella 1.2–1.6 mm.

mottled black and gray or light brown, oblong or slightly ovoid, dorsiventrally compressed in cross section, 2.8–4.1 × 2–2.4 mm, irregularly pitted and tuberculate;

caruncle 0.4–0.8 × 0.6–1.1 mm.

pink, light brown, or grayish, ovoid to narrowly ovoid, 4-angled in cross section, 1–1.4 × 0.6–0.9 mm, smooth to dimpled or rugose, or with faint transverse ridges that do not interrupt abaxial keel.

arrangement: terminal cymose branches 1, 1–2-branched;

pleiochasial bracts 2–3, opposite or whorled, wholly green, similar in shape and size to distal leaves;

dichasial bracts similar in shape to distal leaves or often highly reduced.

peduncle 1–1.9 mm.

solitary or in small, cymose clusters at distal nodes or on congested, axillary branches;

peduncle 0.4–1.7 mm.