Flora of North America species comparison

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

pale pinkish white, freely branching, forming large clumps, 1–2.5 cm diam., clothed with remnants of old leaves;

roots fleshy.

2–3-branched, solid, 10–15(–20+) dm.

1–2-branched, solid, 2–6 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 with blade green to grayish green, often purplish basally, centrally thickened in mature leaves, prominently veined, narrowly ensiform, 1–8 dm × 1–3 cm;

cauline 1–2, blade linear-lanceolate, seldom equaling stem.

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.

compact, units 2–4-flowered;

spathes never foliaceous, 3–6 cm, unequal, outer shorter than inner, thickly chartaceous to scarious, margins shiny, darker in color.

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 violet-blue to rarely white;

floral tube funnelform, constricted above ovary, 1–1.2 cm;

sepals ovate to reniform, 4–7.2 × 1.8–4 cm, base abruptly attenuate, signal a pubescent, greenish or greenish yellow patch surrounded by heavily veined purple on white at base of blade;

petals lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, 2–5 × 0.5–2 cm, much shorter than sepals, firm, apex rarely emarginate;

ovary rounded-triangular in cross section, somewhat inflated, 0.8–2 cm;

style 3–3.5 cm, base not auriculate, margins entire or toothed, crests reflexed, 0.7–1.5 cm;

stigmas unlobed, triangular or rounded-triangular, margins entire;

pedicel 2–8 cm, frequently exceeding spathe.

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.

often persistent over winter, ovoid to oblong-ellipsoid, conspicuously beaked, obtusely triangular in cross section, 1.5–6 cm, tardily dehiscent.

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

dark brown, D-shaped, 5–8 mm, shiny, thin, hard, regularly pebbled, not corky.

= 44.

= 108.