Flora of North America species comparison

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Parietaria floridana

Parietaria

Florida pellitory

pellitory
Habit Herbs, annual or short-lived perennial, 1-4 dm. Herbs, annual or perennial, sparsely to densely pubescent with hooked and straight, nonstinging hairs on all parts of plant, stinging hairs absent.
Stems

10-20-branched, decumbent to ascending.

often branched from base, erect, ascending, or decumbent.
Leaves

blades orbiculate to deltate, 0.7-2.7 × 0.5-1.7 cm, base truncate, rounded, or very broadly cuneate, apex smoothly attenuate or occasionally slightly acuminate.

blades deltate, orbiculate to narrowly elliptic, or lanceolate, margins entire;

cystoliths rounded.
Inflorescences

axillary.
Flowers

involucral bracts 1.5-2 mm;

tepals ca. 1.5 mm, nearly equal to bracts.

bisexual, staminate, or pistillate, proximal flowers usually bisexual and staminate, distal flowers pistillate;

involucral bracts linear to lanceolate, without hooked hairs;

tepals 4, distinct, ascending, lacking hooked hairs;

stamens 4;

style persistent or not;

stigma tufted, deciduous.
Achenes

light brown, symmetric, 0.5-0.8 × 0.3-0.6 mm or less, apex obtuse, mucro ±apical;

stipe centered, short-cylindric, abruptly flared basally.

stipitate, ovoid, acute or mucronate (style base sometimes persisting as apical or subapical mucro), loosely enclosed by tepals.
x

=7, 8, 10, 13.

Parietaria floridana

Parietaria
Phenology Flowering winter–spring.
Habitat Weedy places, around masonry, woodland and shrub borders, shell mounds, sandy beaches, roadsides, Atlantic and Gulf coastal plains
Elevation 0-30 m (0-100 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
DE; FL; GA; LA; MS; NC; SC; TX; Mexico; South America; West Indies
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from USDA
Primarily in temperate and subtropical regions
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Parietaria praetermissa has been misidentified as P. floridana by some authors.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Species 20-30 (5 in the flora).

Mature achenes are necessary for certain determination.

Parietaria nummularifolia (Schwartz) Weddell was collected once in 1992 in Palm Beach County, Florida, in mesic woods bordering a creek (R.P. Wunderlin, pers. comm.). This species is occasionally cultivated, and the Florida collection probably represents an escape.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Herbs perennial; achenes dark brown, apex acute, mucro absent or minute.
P. judaica
1. Herbs annual or short-lived perennial; achenes light brown, apex obtuse, mucro distinct, apical or subapical.
→ 2
2. Leaf blades orbiculate to deltate, apex smoothly attenuate or occasionally slightly acuminate; achenes less than 0.9mm, stipes short-cylindric, abruptly flared basally.
P. floridana
2. Leaf blades ovate to narrowly elliptic or lanceolate, or if deltate or orbiculate, then apex acuminate; achenes 0.9mm or more, stipes basally dilated cylinders.
→ 3
3. Mucro subapical; stipe not centered.
P. praetermissa
3. Mucro apical; stipe centered.
→ 4
4. Leaf blades narrowly to very broadly ovate, oblong, orbiculate, or reniform, base rounded; proximal pair of lateral veins arising at junction of blade and petiole; involucral bracts usually more than 2 times length of achene.
P. hespera
4. Leaf blades narrowly to broadly elliptic, lanceolate, oblong, or ovate, base narrowly cuneate; proximal pair of lateral veins arising distal to junction of blade and petiole; involucral bracts usually less than 2 times length of achene.
P. pensylvanica
Source FNA vol. 3. FNA vol. 3.
Parent taxa Urticaceae > Parietaria Urticaceae
Sibling taxa
P. hespera, P. judaica, P. pensylvanica, P. praetermissa
Subordinate taxa
P. floridana, P. hespera, P. judaica, P. pensylvanica, P. praetermissa
Synonyms P. nummularia
Name authority Nuttall: Gen. N. Amer. Pl. 2: 208. (1818) Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 1052. 175: Gen. Pl. ed. 5, 471. (1754)
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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