Flora of North America species comparison

green, extensively branched, forming large clumps, 2–4 cm diam., with pale leaf scars.

freely branching, forming large clumps, slender, 1–1.2 cm diam., covered with remains of old leaves;

roots fibrous.

2–3-branched, solid, 10–15(–20+) dm.

simple, solid, 6–7 dm.

basal 4–6, erect, blade bright green, ensiform, 10–13 dm × 2–3 cm, apex slightly curved;

cauline with blade foliaceous, appearing as elongated spathe, 5–6.5 dm × 2–3 cm, not exceeding flowers.

basal persistent, blade gray-green, green and without pink coloration basally, 6–7 dm × 1.5–2 cm, glaucous, margins not thickened;

cauline 1–2, free from stem for ca. 1/2 length, foliaceous, spreading, blade not inflated.

2–3-flowered, branch units 1–2-flowered;

spathes tightly enclosing ovary and pedicel, 15–20 cm, subequal;

outer narrowly lanceolate, keeled, margins pale, narrow, inner margins translucent, broad, scarious.

3(–4)-flowered;

spathes widely separated, sometimes by 9 cm, divergent, unequal, outer 6.5–15 cm × 8–14 mm, inner much shorter.

perianth blue or blue-purple;

floral tube tubular-prismatic, 9-ribbed and -grooved, 4–5 cm;

sepals blue or blue-purple with white streaks surrounding signal, oval to orbicular-oval, 9.5–11 × 4–5 cm, base abruptly attenuate into claw, apex obtusely angled, signal with raised, yellow, pubescent central ridge, claw green, striate, 4–4.5 × 1–1.2 cm;

petals erect or spreading-erect, spatulate, 7–8.5 × 2–3 cm, base cuneate, apex emarginate;

ovary bluntly 6-angled, 4–4.5 cm;

style blue-violet, keeled, 3.5–4 cm, raised above sepals, crests recurved, 1.5–2 cm, margins sharply and irregularly serrate;

stigmas 2-lobed with 2 triangular teeth;

pedicel columnar, 3.5–5 cm.

perianth pale powder blue to lavender or violet, often frilled and veined in violet or darker blue;

floral tube funnelform, 0.7–1 cm;

sepals oblong-ovate to broadly oblanceolate, 6.2–9 × 1.8–3.7 cm, base gradually attenuate, apex emarginate;

petals oblong to spatulate, 5–9.5 × 1.2–2.1 cm, base attenuate, apex apiculate;

ovary rounded in cross section, 1.4–3 cm, base gradually attenuate into pedicel, apex abruptly acuminate into floral tube;

style 3 cm, crests reflexed, subquadrate, shallowly lobed, 1.1–2 cm, margins entire or obscurely and shallowly lobed;

stigmas triangular, margins entire;

pedicels of varying lengths, 0.8–4.8 cm on first flower, those of later flowers longer.

drooping, bright green, ellipsoid, hexagonal in cross section, with 6 broad, rounded lobes, 8–10 × 3 cm, indehiscent;

after anthesis, flower stem elongates, arching downward to push capsule into water, where walls are broken down and as funiculus is broken, seed rises to surface.

oblong, rounded in cross section, tapering abruptly at either end, to 5 cm.

in 2 rows per locule, brown, D-shaped, 8–10 mm wide, very corky.

brown, D-shaped or irregular, coarsely wrinkled.

= 44.

= 40.