Flora of North America species comparison

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

erect to ascending, much-branched throughout, 10–30 cm, glabrous.

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, 2–5 mm, apex acuminate to long-acuminate, entire;

blade linear, 7–15(–19) × 0.4–0.8(–1) mm, leathery, apex subobtuse or minutely cuspidate, glabrous.

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, ± short-campanulate, with enlarged hypanthium and calyx constricted proximally, 2.3–3.2 mm, hirtellous, glabrous distally;

sepals red-brown, veins absent to obscure, narrowly oblong, 1.8–2.3 mm, leathery to rigid, margins translucent, 0.05–0.1 mm wide, scarious, apex terminated by awn, hood conspicuously rounded, awn divergently spreading, 1–1.5(–2) mm, ± broadly conic in proximal 1/3 with yellowish, glabrous spine;

staminodes filiform, 0.7–0.9 mm;

style 1, cleft in distal 1/5, 0.6–1.3 mm.

ovoid, 1.3–1.5 mm, smooth, glabrous.

ovoid, 1.2–1.5 mm, minutely papillose distally.

terminating branchlets, 10–40+-flowered, repeatedly forked and diffuse, clusters 1–3 cm wide.

= 32.