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California pellitory, pelitory, rillita pellitory, unknown

pellitory

Habit Herbs, annual, 0.2-5.5 dm. Herbs, annual or perennial, sparsely to densely pubescent with hooked and straight, nonstinging hairs on all parts of plant, stinging hairs absent.
Stems

simple or freely branched, sometimes densely matted, prostrate, decumbent, ascending, or erect.

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

Leaves

blades narrowly to very broadly ovate, oblong, orbiculate, or reniform, 0.2-4.5 × 0.2-2.7 cm, base broadly cuneate, rounded, truncate, or nearly cordate, apex acuminate, acute, obtuse, or rounded;

proximal pair of lateral veins arising at junction of blade and petiole.

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

cystoliths rounded.

Inflorescences

axillary.

Flowers

involucral bracts 1-4.5 mm;

tepals 2-2.8 mm, shorter or longer than 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, 0.9-1.2 × 0.6-0.7 mm, apex obtuse, mucro apical;

stipe centered, short-cylindric, basally dilated.

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

x

=7, 8, 10, 13.

Parietaria hespera

Parietaria

Distribution
from FNA
AZ; CA; NM; NV; UT; Mexico
[WildflowerSearch map]
from USDA
Primarily in temperate and subtropical regions
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Varieties 2 (2 in the flora).

(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. Tepals erect, loosely connivent, apex acute; leaf blades conspicuously longer than wide, base broadly cuneate, rounded, or truncate.
var. hespera
1. Tepals spreading or recurved and twisted at maturity, distinct, apex long-acuminate, attenuate, or caudate; leaf blades as long as or slightly longer than wide, base rounded to nearly cordate.
var. californica
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. floridana, P. judaica, P. pensylvanica, P. praetermissa
Subordinate taxa
P. hespera var. californica, P. hespera var. hespera
P. floridana, P. hespera, P. judaica, P. pensylvanica, P. praetermissa
Name authority B. D. Hinton: Sida 3: 293. (1969) Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 2: 1052. 175: Gen. Pl. ed. 5, 471. (1754)
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