Flora of North America species comparison

heterogeneous, whitish, cordlike portions 0.1–1.5 dm × 2–4 mm, enlarging to 6–8 mm diam., densely covered with brown, scalelike leaves, roots absent, or torulose with roots borne along entire rhizome.

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, 5–15 cm.

1-branched, solid, 3–10 dm.

basal with blade light green, ensiform, 0.3–1.5 dm × 0.3–1.3 cm, enlarging to 3.5 dm, glaucous;

cauline 5–9, sheathing, imbricate, blade light green, obovate, 1.3–5 cm, increasing in length, proximal shortest, membranous, apex acute.

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.

1–2-flowered;

spathes divergent, exposing floral tube, green, lanceolate, 2–2.5 cm, apex acuminate.

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.

floral tube pale violet, filiform, 2.5–6.5 cm, expanding somewhat distally to 2.5–4 cm diam.;

sepals widely spreading, blue to violet with yellow or orange longitudinal papillose band at base of blade, obovate, 2–6 × 0.8–2 cm, base gradually attenuate into claw, not crested;

petals erect, arching inward at tip, spatulate, 2–7 × 1–2 cm, base abruptly attenuate into claw;

ovary linear, to 1.3 cm;

styles pale violet, 2.5–4 cm, crests linear-acute, narrow, 0.7 cm;

stigmas rounded, margins entire;

pedicel 1–3 cm, increasing to 25 cm as capsule matures.

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.

3-angled with single ridge at each angle, almost hidden in bases of spathes, 1–3.2 × 0.8–1.5 cm, tapering into beak consisting of dried remnant of floral tube.

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.

dark brown, ribbed, 2.8–3.2 mm, lustrous, with small, fleshy aril basally.

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

= 44.