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fork-chickweed, smooth fork whitlow-wort, smooth-fork nailwort

Eurasian nailwort

Habit Plants annual; taproot filiform to slender.
Stems

erect, dichotomously branched, 3–40 cm, ultimate branches filiform, glabrous.

Leaves

stipules subulate to lanceolate, 0.5–4 mm, apex acuminate, entire;

blade usually dotted or blotched, elliptic to obovate, 3–30 × 1–11 mm, herbaceous, apex acute to obtuse or cuspidate, glabrous.

Flowers

5-merous, ± short-cylindric, with enlarged hypanthium and calyx cylindric, 0.9–1.3 mm, glabrous;

sepals greenish to brownish, midrib and lateral pair of veins prominent, ovate to oblong, 0.5–1 mm, herbaceous, margins white to translucent, 0.03–0.1 mm wide, scarious, apex terminated by mucro, hood rounded-triangular, mucro triangular, 0.07–0.15 mm, glabrous;

staminodes absent or indistinct;

styles 2, 0.2–0.3 mm.

Cymes

diffuse, flowers solitary (paired) in axils of leafy bracts.

Utricles

ovoid to globose, ca. 0.5 mm, granular in distal 1/2, glabrous.

Paronychia canadensis

Paronychia echinulata

Phenology Flowering spring–fall.
Habitat Woodlands, thickets, fields, clearings, roadsides, waste places
Elevation 0-1300 m (0-4300 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
AL; AR; CT; DC; DE; GA; IA; IL; IN; KS; KY; LA; MA; MD; MI; MN; MO; NC; NE; NH; NJ; NY; OH; OK; PA; RI; SC; TN; VA; VT; WI; WV; ON
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[BONAP county map]
from FNA
CA; Europe (Medi-terranean region); sw Asia; Africa (nw Mediterranean region)
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Varieties 2 (1 in the flora).

Paronychia echinulata was for many years known as P. echinata Lamarck. The latter cannot be used since, as Chater noted, it is a superfluous name for Illecebrum cymosa Linnaeus [= P. cymosa (Linnaeus) de Candolle].

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

Source FNA vol. 5, p. 34. FNA vol. 5, p. 36.
Parent taxa Caryophyllaceae > subfam. Paronychioideae > Paronychia Caryophyllaceae > subfam. Paronychioideae > Paronychia
Sibling taxa
P. ahartii, P. americana, P. argyrocoma, P. baldwinii, P. chartacea, P. congesta, P. depressa, P. drummondii, P. echinulata, P. erecta, P. fastigiata, P. franciscana, P. herniarioides, P. jamesii, P. jonesii, P. lindheimeri, P. maccartii, P. monticola, P. patula, P. pulvinata, P. rugelii, P. sessiliflora, P. setacea, P. virginica, P. wilkinsonii
P. ahartii, P. americana, P. argyrocoma, P. baldwinii, P. canadensis, P. chartacea, P. congesta, P. depressa, P. drummondii, P. erecta, P. fastigiata, P. franciscana, P. herniarioides, P. jamesii, P. jonesii, P. lindheimeri, P. maccartii, P. monticola, P. patula, P. pulvinata, P. rugelii, P. sessiliflora, P. setacea, P. virginica, P. wilkinsonii
Subordinate taxa
P. echinulata var. echinulata
Synonyms Queria canadensis, Anychia canadensis
Name authority (Linnaeus) Alph. Wood: Class-Book Bot. ed. s.n.(b), 262. (1861) Chater: Feddes Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 69: 52. (1964)
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