Flora of North America species comparison

greenish with brown leaf scars, branching from older buds quite some distance proximal to apex, forming widely scattered colonies, 2–2.5 cm diam.

many-branched, forming dense, cespitose clumps with many crowded fans with persistent old leaf bases, 3–5 × 1.3–1.5 cm.

1–2-branched, solid, 3–9 dm.

several to many from a single clump of fans, simple, 0.5–6 dm.

basal stiffly erect, blade yellow-green, lightly ribbed, 8–9 dm × 2–3 cm;

cauline 1–2, foliaceous, blade 1.2–2 dm, exceeding subtended flower.

basal erect or strongly ascending, blade 1–5.2 dm × 0.5–1.4 cm;

cauline 2–4, proximal 2–3 similar to basal leaves, distalmost leaf occasionally borne nearly midway on stem, clasping, blade bracteiform, lanceolate, 0.5–1.5 dm.

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

spathes lanceolate, subequal or unequal, apex acute;

outer foliaceous, 15–20 cm, usually exceeding flower;

inner 8–10 cm, herbaceous, with scarious margins.

1–2-flowered;

spathes herbaceous, lanceolate to oblong-ovate, 2.5–6 cm, firm, outer spathe apex acute, inner similar or scarious at apex.

perianth blue to violet, rarely white;

floral tube funnelform, grooved in line with grooves of ovary, 2–3 cm;

sepals spreading horizontally, obovate to oval, 8–8.5 × 4 cm, claw greenish with prominent yellow midrib which is pubescent on each side at base, apex rounded;

petals erect or spreading-erect, oblanceolate to spatulate, 7–9 × 2 cm, claw veined with green;

ovary roundly triangular in cross section, with wide grooves at angles and concave sides, 2–3 cm;

style convex laterally from central reddish ridge, 3.5–5 cm, narrower than claw of sepals, crests erect, overlapping, semiovate to triangular, 1–5 cm, margins coarsely toothed;

stigmas 2-lobed, lobes triangular or rounded-deltoid, margins entire;

pedicel 2.5–3.5 cm.

perianth deep to pale blue or blue-violet;

floral tube 0.5–0.75 cm;

sepals broadly rounded, 2.5–4 cm wide, base strongly attenuate to claw, signal diffuse white basal patch;

petals much reduced to insignificant, involute or tubular rudiments, 1–2 cm, apex with short bristle, mostly hidden by sepal bases;

ovary green or flushed purple, acutely trigonal;

style white with purple keel, 2–5 cm, crests overlapping, 2-lobed, subquadrate, margins coarsely serrate;

stigmas rounded-triangular, margins entire;

pedicel 2.5–4 cm.

hexagonal in cross section, with 3 alternate sides plane, others with 2 rounded ridges with shallow groove between them, 2.5–3.5 × 2–2.5 cm.

thin walled, trigonal, with rounded angles and grooved sides, 2–4 cm, apex blunt.

in 2 rows per locule, light brown, D-shaped or irregularly rounded, 4–6 mm, corky.

in 2 rows per locule, dark brown with prominent white raphe, compressed-pyriform, 4–6 mm, lustrous.

= 44.

= 38.