Flora of North America species comparison

erect to decumbent, sprawling, creeping, trailing, prostrate, or procumbent.

pale reddish to purplish, becoming gray to dark gray, puberulent and sparsely stipitate-glandular, becoming glabrate.

aromatic;

petiole 0.5–2 mm, sparsely puberulent and sessile-glandular;

blade dark green abaxially, light green adaxially, elliptic to elliptic-oblong, 10–25 × 5–12 mm, base cuneate, margins entire, usually plane, apex obtuse, usually apiculate, surfaces glabrous or sparsely sessile dotted-glandular abaxially, densely covered with sessile crystalline-punctate glands adaxially.

deciduous or persistent, usually alternate, sometimes opposite, whorled, or spirally arranged;

petiole usually present;

blade plane or acicular, abaxial groove present or absent.

erect, (5–)7–12(–15)-flowered;

bracts leaflike.

axillary or terminal, fascicles, racemes, panicles, capitula, cymes, umbels, corymbs, spikes, or solitary flowers;

perulae present or absent;

bracts much shorter than sepals (sometimes absent).

1–2 cm, hairy, glandular.

calyx lobes light purple, ovate, 3–5 mm, margins ± glandular-ciliate;

corolla rose to deep pink, (12–)14–20 mm diam., petal ridges connected between corolla lobes, lobes connate ca. 1/2 their lengths, abaxial surface ± puberulent and glandular apically (throat puberulent or glabrous);

filaments 3–7(–10) mm, rarely ciliate basally;

anthers purple, oblong, 0.7–1.8 mm;

style dimorphic, 7–10 mm (long form), 3–6 mm (short form);

ovary puberulent, dotted-glandular.

bisexual or unisexual, erect or pendulous, usually radially or bilaterally symmetric;

sepals (2-)4-5(-7);

petals absent or (2-)4-5(-7), connate or distinct, corolla deciduous or persistent, campanulate, salverform, rotate, saucer-shaped, funnelform, cylindric, or urceolate, (with pockets holding anthers until they open in some Kalmia), lobes shorter than tube;

intrastaminal nectary disc present;

stamens (2-)5-10;

anthers dehiscent by lateral pores or slits;

ovary (2-)5-10-locular;

placentation axile (parietal distally in Epigaea);

style straight or declinate (curved in Elliottia).

capsular, dehiscence usually septicidal, sometimes loculicidal or septifragal, or drupaceous, (dry to fleshy), indehiscent.

0.3–0.7 mm.

2-300, distinct, obovoid, ovoid, or ellipsoid to oblong, linear, fusiform, or planoconvex, winged or not.

= 24.