Flora of North America species comparison

unbranched or sparsely short-branched distally, slender, pubescent, becoming glabrous.

gray to dark reddish brown;

lenticels numerous, gray.

blade lanceolate to elliptic-lanceolate, 5-20 × 3.5-6 cm, leathery, base acute, margins narrowly revolute, apex acute to acuminate;

surfaces silky-pubescent when young, becoming glabrous and glossy adaxially.

blade: margins entire;

surfaces densely pubescent, becoming ± glabrous.

staminate catkins cylindric in bud, lax and outward curving at anthesis, 2-6 × 1-1.5 cm;

pistillate stiffly erect, 1-3 × 1 cm.

in flower before leaves appear, in axils of previous year's leaves;

basal and apical bracts often sterile;

staminate catkins compound, bracts 40-50, bracteoles absent;

pistillate catkins simple, spikelike, bracts 10-15, each subtending 2 small bracteoles.

subtended by bracts;

bracts spirally arranged, deltate-ovate, apex acute, surface silky-pubescent abaxially.

stamens (3-)10-12(-15);

filaments short;

anthers basifixed, broadly oblong, 4-sporangiate, 2-locular at anthesis, dehiscing longitudinally.

cymules 3-flowered, sessile;

stamens clustered;

pistils absent.

sepals (3-)4(-8), irregularly inserted, unequal;

ovary elliptic, ca. 2 mm, finely pubescent;

style 4-5 mm;

stigma exserted, often recurved or twisted, reddish.

solitary;

perianth present;

sepals small, scalelike;

staminodes absent;

ovary sessile, style linear, stigma deciduous, decurrent, abaxially grooved, groove facing bract.

erect, green, becoming chestnut brown, elliptic to oblong-elliptic, often compressed on drying, 1-2.5 cm, glabrous, base and apex blunt, apex with conspicuous dark stylar scar, vascular bundles toughening the thin flesh;

endocarp brown, bony, surface rough-reticulate.

subtended by persistent bracts, bracteoles, and sepals.

1, compressed;

seed coat membranous, hilum blackish, elongate;

endosperm thin, starchy;

embryo large, straight;

cotyledons ovoid, slightly fleshy.

= 16.

= 32.