Limonium sinuatum |
Limonium |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
statice, wavyleaf sea-lavender |
marsh-rosemary, rosemary, sea-lavender, statice |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Habit | Plants herbs, usually perennial, scapose, acaulescent; taprooted or rhizomatous. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Leaves | all in basal rosettes, living at anthesis, 6–16 × 1.5–3 cm; petiole to ca. 5 cm, shorter than blade; blade oblanceolate, 6–12 cm × 1.5–36 mm, herbaceous to chartaceous, base tapered to a sinuate wing, margins pinnately lobed to 1–3 mm from midrib (lobes mostly 4–6 per side, broadest near apex), apex cuspidate, cusp 1–3 mm, soon falling; main lateral veins pinnate. |
basal (sometimes also on inflorescence axes), sessile or petiolate; blade often punctate, elliptic to obovate, oblanceolate, spatulate, oblong, or round, usually coriaceous, base usually long-attenuate, margins entire or toothed to pinnatifid, apex rounded to apiculate or retuse. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Inflorescences | axes narrowly 3–5-winged, 20–40(–50) cm × 3–5 mm, hispid (hairs to 1.5 mm), wings to 3 mm wide, each with ± leaflike, linear, hispid appendage 2–8 × 0.2–0.5 cm usually at branch points; nonflowering branches absent, spikelets moderately to densely aggregated at branch tips; internodes mostly 5–10 mm; subtending bracts 5–10 mm, narrowly acuminate or often awned at tips, surfaces and margins hispid; flowers 1–3 per spikelet. |
usually of terminal panicles or corymbs, ultimate branch tips bearing secund, usually 1–3(–5)-flowered spikelets. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pedicels | absent or present (very short, subtended by 3 or 4 sheathing bracts). |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Flowers | calyx blue to lavender distally, funnelform, glabrous or minutely hairy on tube, lobes not distinct, expanded portion spreading, 5–7 mm, erose; petals pale yellow, exceeding calyx 2–4 mm. |
homostylous; calyx tubular to funnelform, 5-ribbed, glabrous or pubescent, plicate, lobes oblong to triangular, sometimes with smaller intervening lobes, or lobes ± connate and calyx mouth erose; petals nearly distinct, white, lavender, or yellow, long-clawed; filaments adnate to base of corolla; anthers included; styles 5, distinct to base; stigmas linear-clavate, papillate. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fruits | utricles, usually exserted from persistent calyx, brownish green, usually capped by marcescent corolla and style bases. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Utricles | ca. 5 mm. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
x | = 8, 9. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2n | = 16, 18. |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Limonium sinuatum |
Limonium |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Phenology | Flowering Mar–Oct. | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Habitat | Disturbed coastal areas, vacant lots, old fields, roadsides | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Elevation | 0-300 m (0-1000 ft) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Distribution |
CA; Mediterranean region; w Asia [Introduced in North America]
|
Worldwide; especially from Mediterranean region east to c Asia |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Discussion | Species ca. 300 (8 in the flora). The greatest diversity in Limonium is found in Europe (ca. 100 species and many subspecies; see S. Pignatti 1972) and in Mediterranean and central Asian regions, often on saline or calcareous soils and cliffs near the coasts; other species are found in saline marshlands. The showiest species (L. arborescens and L. perezii), with a persistent blue-purple to lavender calyx, have their origin in the Canary Islands; they are often cultivated for ornament or their inflorescences are air-dried for floral arrangements under their Linnaean name “Statice.” Other species have been used in rock gardens. Six species are locally naturalized in California. Limonium vulgare Miller (Statice limonium Linnaeus), similar morphologically to L. carolinianum, has been reported by H. J. Scoggan (1978–1979, part 4) from central Saskatchewan and southern Ontario (“in a weedy...cemetery...York Co., where ‘growing without cultivation’”). It is doubtful that the species persists or is spreading. Recent revisitation of the site in Ontario by J. E. Eckenwalder (pers. comm.) suggests that Limonium vulgare is no longer extant there. Limonium leptostachyum (Boissier) Kuntze (S. leptostachya Boissier) has been reported from New York by R. S. Mitchell and G. C. Tucker (1997); it is doubtful that this central Asian species is naturalized in the flora area. It differs from all other species in the flora area by having small (10–30 × 5 mm), deeply pinnatifid leaves and narrow, spikelike inflorescences. Some species of Limonium, e.g., L. sinuatum, have dimorphic pollen and stigmas that result in self-incompatibility, although the native species in the flora area have been shown to be self-compatible (H. G. Baker 1953b). Agamospermy is also common in some extraterritorial species, and this may account, in part, for the taxonomic difficulty in some groups of Limonium. (Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.) |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Key |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Source | FNA vol. 5, p. 609. | FNA vol. 5, p. 606. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Parent taxa | Plumbaginaceae > Limonium | Plumbaginaceae | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sibling taxa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Subordinate taxa | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Synonyms | Statice sinuata | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Name authority | (Linnaeus) Miller: Gard. Dict. ed. 8, Limonium no. 6. (1768) | Miller: Gard. Dict. Abr. ed. 4, vol. 2. (1754) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Web links |
|