Flora of North America species comparison

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Kickxia

cancerwort, fluellin
Habit Herbs, annual [perennial].
Stems

decumbent or prostrate to erect [climbing], villous to glandular-hairy [glabrous].
Leaves

cauline, alternate, sometimes opposite proximally;

petiole present;

blade oblong-ovate to orbiculate or cordate, not fleshy, not leathery, margins entire or dentate [lobed].
Inflorescences

axillary, flowers solitary;

bracts absent.
Pedicels

present, spreading;

bracteoles absent.
Flowers

bisexual;

sepals 5, basally connate, equal, calyx radially symmetric, campanulate, lobes lanceolate [linear], villous;

corolla yellow [white], often tinged blue to violet [red], bilaterally symmetric, bilabiate and personate, tubular, tube base not gibbous, spurred abaxially, lobes 5, abaxial 3, spreading, adaxial 2, erect, subequal, apex round;

stamens 4, basally adnate to corolla, didynamous, included, filaments incurved, sparsely hairy or glabrous, anthers coherent, ciliate, pollen sacs oblong;

staminode 0;

ovary 2-locular, villous, locules subequal, placentation axile;

stigma capitate.
Fruits

capsules, dehiscence poricidal [indehiscent].
Seeds

[6–]20–40[–60], dark brown to black, oblong-ovoid [reniform], wings absent.
x

= 9.

Kickxia
Distribution
from USDA
Eurasia; n Africa; Atlantic Islands [Introduced in North America; introduced also in Mexico, West Indies, Central America, South America, Pacific Islands, Australia]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Species 9 or 46 (2 in the flora).

Kickxia is characterized by personate, long-spurred corollas, coherent anthers, and poricidal capsule dehiscence. Early treatments proposed that Kickxia was congeneric with, or closely related to, Linaria (G. Bentham 1876; P. A. Munz 1926); later taxonomic treatments and phylogenetic analyses have supported generic rank for Kickxia (W. Rothmaler 1943; D. A. Sutton 1988; M. Ghebrehiwet 2001). Morphology- and molecular-based phylogenies support Anarrhinum Desfontaines (x = 10) as the most likely sister group to Kickxia (x = 9) and their basal position in Antirrhineae as the Anarrhinum clade (Ghebrehiwet et al. 2000; P. Vargas et al. 2004).

Although usually considered in a broad sense (D. A. Sutton 1988), N. Yousefi et al. (2016) proposed, on the basis of ITS and trnl sequence data, that Kickxia sect. Valvatae (Wettstein) Janchen be recognized at the genus level. Kickxia then becomes a genus of nine species, with 37 being transferred to Nanorrhinum Betsche.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Leaf blade bases: proximal truncate or rounded to cuneate, distal hastate to sagittate; sepal lobes not accrescent.
K. elatine
1. Leaf blade bases rounded to cordate; sepal lobes accrescent.
K. spuria
Source FNA vol. 17, p. 25. Author: Wayne J. Elisens.
Parent taxa Plantaginaceae
Subordinate taxa
K. elatine, K. spuria
Name authority Dumortier: Fl. Belg., 35. (1827)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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