Flora of North America species comparison

prostrate, much-branched, 5–10 cm, puberulent.

erect, 6–10 cm, evenly puberulent with spreading hairs.

stipules ovate, 3–6 mm, apex subobtuse, entire;

blade narrowly elliptic-oblong or oblong to narrowly elliptic-oblanceolate, 2–5 × 0.2–1.8(–2) mm, fleshy, apex obtuse to subacute, glabrous.

stipules lanceolate, 4–7 mm, apex acuminate, entire;

blade linear or needlelike, 4–7 × ca. 0.5 mm, leathery, apex spinulose, puberulous.

mostly solitary at end of shoots, almost concealed by leaves.;

flowers 5-merous, elliptic-oblong, with enlarged hypanthium and calyx straight to tapering distally, 2.5–2.8 mm, densely appressed-puberulent, sparsely so distally;

sepals whitish to green, veins absent, narrowly oblong to ovate-oblong, 1.5–1.7 mm, papery to herbaceous, margins white, 0.2–0.3 mm wide, papery, apex with subterminal awn, hood ascending as continuation of sepal, broadly rounded to notched, awn erect, white, 0.3–0.6(–1) mm, ± glabrous spine;

staminodes filiform, 0.7–0.9 mm;

style 1, cleft in distal 1/3, 0.8–1 mm.

5-merous, extended-urecolate, with prominent hypanthial bulge and calyx tapering somewhat distally, 2.8–3.1 mm, moderately pubescent with straight, spreading to appressed hairs generally throughout;

sepals green to red-brown, veins absent or midrib and lateral pair of veins evident in fruit, lanceolate to oblong, 1.3–1.5 mm, leathery to rigid, margins translucent, less than 0.05 mm wide, scarious, apex terminated by awn, hood prominent, narrowly rounded, awn widely divergent, 0.5–0.7 mm, broadly conic in proximal 1/2–2/3 with yellowish, ± glabrous spine;

staminodes subulate, ca. 0.5 mm;

style 1, 2-lobed in distal 1/3–3/5, 0.5–0.7 mm.

ovoid, 1.3–1.5 mm, smooth, glabrous.

± ovoid, 0.8–0.9 mm, ± smooth, glabrous.

terminal, 7–28+-flowered, branched, mostly congested in clusters 5–15 mm wide.

= 32.