Flora of North America species comparison

superficial or only slightly buried in peaty soil, cordlike portions usually 1-branched, 40 cm × 2–5 mm, bearing scalelike leaves at nodes;

nodal roots absent.

greenish, freely branching, forming large, open clumps, 2–2.5 cm diam., fleshy, with fibrous bases of old leaves not covering rhizome but persisting on ringlike scars.

simple or 1–2-branched, 3–8 dm.

1-branched, solid, 3–10 dm.

basal with blade slightly ribbed, 3–6 dm × 0.2–0.5 cm;

cauline 1–4, erect.

basal usually dying back shortly after anthesis, blade bright green, 6–10 dm × 0.8–2 cm, sometimes glaucescent;

cauline with blade elongate, linear-attenuate, 15–20 cm, exceeding flowers.

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

spathes pale brown, narrowly lanceolate, 2–4 cm, scarious or partially membranaceous.

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

spathes lanceolate, subequal or unequal, apex acute;

outer 8–10 cm, herbaceous, margins scarious;

inner 6–9 cm, completely scarious.

perianth pale blue or blue-violet;

floral tube 0.2–0.3 cm;

sepals pale violet, veined deep violet basally, ovate, 4–5 × 1.3–2 cm, base abruptly attenuate;

petals lavender, oblanceolate, 3.5–4.5 × 0.7–1.5 cm;

ovary trigonal, sharply angled;

style arched, narrow, 2–3 cm, crests divergent, quadrate, 0.5–0.7 cm, margins serrate;

stigmas sharply triangular;

pedicel somewhat flattened, 3–7 cm, exserted from spathe.

perianth blue to blue-violet (white in forma albispiritis);

floral tube funnelform, 1.2–1.5 cm;

sepals blue or pale violet with flecks of white and lines of deeper blue on either side of ridge, spatulate, elliptic to ovate, 7–8 cm, apex acuminate, ridge yellow, linear, extending to about middle of limb, finely pubescent, claw light green, striated, ribbed, 1–1.2 cm;

petals erect or spreading-erect, deep blue, linear to narrowly linear-spatulate, 6–7.5 cm, base abruptly attenuate into claw, claw channeled, green with darker lines, margins pale;

ovary bluntly 3-angled, ridged at each angle and on faces between angles;

style linear-acute, 5–6 cm;

crests ovate, 1–2 cm, margins sharply and irregularly toothed;

stigmas broadly 2-lobed, margins crenate;

pedicel 1.6–2 cm.

sharply 3-angled, almost winged, 3–4 × 1.2–1.4 cm, concave faces 6–14 mm wide.

ellipsoid, round in cross section, roundly 6-lobed, with 6 sharp, winglike, equally spaced ridges converging to form stout beak at apex, 6–10 cm, dehiscence loculicidal.

in 1 row per locule, buff to dark brown, pyriform, with convex sides, 3–4 mm, smooth.

in 1 row per locule, brown, circular or uneven, flattened, 8–12 mm diam, very corky.

= 42.

= 44.