Flora of North America species comparison

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Fagonia laevis

California fagonbush, small flower fagonia, smooth-stem fagonia
Habit Subshrubs or shrubs, less than 1 m, to 1 m diam.
Stems

erect to spreading, intricately branched, dark green, not noticeably slender, mostly glabrous, but ultimate branches rarely sparsely stipitate-glandular, glands clear or yellow, to 0.1 mm diam.;

older branches and sometimes younger parts scabrous, older branches becoming stolonlike, bearing many erect smaller branches.
Leaves

(1–)3-foliolate;

stipules curved, reflexed to spreading, subulate, 1–6 mm, shorter than petioles, glabrous or sometimes sparsely stipitate-glandular;

petiole 2–15 mm, glabrous or sometimes sparsely stipitate-glandular;

leaflets linear-elliptic, glabrous, generally longer than petiole, apex spinose, terminal 3–18 × 1–5 mm, laterals to 15 × 3 mm, shorter and narrower than terminal, one or both commonly caducous.
Pedicels

1.5–7 mm, glabrous or often sparsely stipitate-glandular.
Flowers

1 cm diam.;

sepals green to purple, elliptic to lanceolate, 2–3 × 1 mm, glabrous or often sparsely stipitate-glandular;

petals pink to dark red-purple, 4–7 × 1.5–3 mm;

stamen filaments 3–4.5 mm;

ovary 2–3 mm, glabrous or puberulent, not glandular;

style 1–2 mm.
Capsules

4–5 × 3–6 mm, usually minutely strigose or puberulent, rarely glabrous, not glandular;

style 1–2 mm, wider at base.

Fagonia laevis
Phenology Flowering Nov–Jun.
Habitat Rocky desert hillsides to sandy washes.
Elevation 0–1200 m. (0–3900 ft.)
Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CA; Mexico (Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sonora)
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Discussion

Fagonia laevis is restricted to the Mojave and Sonoran deserts, where it appears to have a more southern distribution than F. longipes. There has been some controversy about whether F. laevis and F. longipes are separate species. They are superficially similar to one another; however, F. longipes can be distinguished by its slender branches and longer pedicels and its minute stipitate-glandular hairs on stems, stipules, petioles, leaflets, pedicels, sepals, ovaries, and capsules (D. M. Porter 1963). Although F. laevis is usually glabrous, often pedicels and sepals, sometimes stipules and petioles, and rarely ultimate branches have a few small stipitate glands, but these never occur on ovaries or capsules. In addition, although the more southerly F. laevis and more northerly F. longipes overlap in their distributions in Arizona and California, and both species are found in dry, rocky or sandy, usually hillside habitats, they apparently do not grow together (R. S. Felger, pers. comm.). Also according to Felger, the herbage of the two differs, with F. laevis being dark green and F. longipes light to grayish green.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 12, p. 30.
Parent taxa Zygophyllaceae > Fagonia
Sibling taxa
F. longipes, F. pachyacantha
Synonyms F. californica subsp. laevis, F. chilensis var. laevis
Name authority Standley: Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. 24: 249. (1911)
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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