Flora of North America species comparison

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.

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

roots fibrous.

1-branched, solid, 3–10 dm.

simple, solid, 6–7 dm.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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

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

brown, D-shaped or irregular, coarsely wrinkled.

= 44.

= 40.