Flora of North America species comparison

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

prostrate to erect, much-branched, 5–50 cm, retrorsely pubescent throughout.

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, 1.5–7 mm, apex acuminate, entire;

blade linear-oblong to oblanceolate, 3–20 × 0.5–3 mm, herbaceous, apex obtuse to subacute, sparsely antrorsely pubescent.

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, cylindric, with enlarged hypanthium and calyx constricted then widening distally, 1.2–2.2 mm, pubescent, sometimes only slightly so, mostly proximally with straight or usually hooked hairs;

sepals red-brown, white distally, midrib and lateral pair of veins becoming prominent, linear to oblong, 0.6–1.2 mm, papery, margins white, 0.03–0.1 mm wide, papery, apex terminated by mucro, hood obscure, narrowly rounded, mucro short-conic, 0.05–0.1 mm, glabrous;

staminodes triangular, 0.2–0.4 mm;

style 1, cleft (2- or 3-lobed) in distal 1/5, 0.5–1.3 mm.

ovoid, 1.3–1.5 mm, smooth, glabrous.

ovoid to subglobose, 0.4–0.6 mm, ± smooth, glabrous.

terminal and lateral, 15–50+-flowered, densely congested, ± spheroid clusters 3–5 mm wide.

= 32.