The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Rugel's nailwort, sand squares

creeping nailwort, low nailwort

Habit Plants annual; taproot filiform to slender. Plants perennial, densely cespitose and mat-forming; caudex branched, woody.
Stems

erect, dichotomously branched, 5–50 cm, retrorsely to spreading- pubescent throughout.

erect to ascending, branched proximally, 5–25 cm, hirtellous.

Leaves

stipules ovate-lanceolate, 2–6 mm, apex acuminate, entire;

blade linear to linear-oblanceolate or linear-oblong, 3–25 × 1–2.3 mm, herbaceous, apex ± acute, moderately antrorsely puberulent.

stipules lanceolate to subulate, 2–3 mm, apex long-acuminate, often deeply cleft;

blade linear-subulate, 4–7.5 × 0.5–0.8 mm, leathery, apex acute or shortly cuspidate-mucronate, very finely puberulent to glabrous.

Flowers

5-merous, cylindric to narrowly lanceolate, with enlarged hypanthium and calyx cylindric to tapering distally, 2.3–3.5 mm, pubescent mostly proximal with hooked or usually straight hairs, sometimes with scattered straight hairs distally;

sepals flecked or solid red-brown, white distally, midrib obscure, linear-lanceolate, 1.5–2 mm, papery, margins white, 0.1–0.2 mm wide, papery, apex terminated by mucro, hood obscure, narrowly rounded, mucro short-conic, ca. 0.1 mm, glabrous;

staminodes filiform, widening proximally, 0.5–0.6 mm;

style 1, cleft in distal 1/10.

5-merous, ± ovoid, with enlarged hypanthium and calyx narrowing distally, 3.6–5 mm, moderately pubescent with silky to stiff, antrorse to somewhat spreading hairs;

sepals green to red-brown, midrib and lateral pair of veins prominent, lanceolate-oblong, 1.5–2 mm, leathery, margins whitish to translucent, 0.1–0.2 mm wide, scarious, apex terminated by awn, hood ± obscure, narrowly rounded, awn erect to somewhat spreading, 1–1.5(–2) mm, narrowly conic in proximal 1/2 with white, scabrous spine;

staminodes filiform, 0.7–1 mm;

style 1, cleft in distal 1/5, 1.4–1.5 mm.

Cymes

terminal and lateral, 15–50+-flowered, often forming large, congested clusters 5–30 mm wide.

terminal, 3–6-flowered, congested, or flowers solitary.

Utricles

broadly ellipsoid to ± globose, 0.5–0.7 mm, smooth, glabrous.

ovoid-oblong, 1.3–1.4 mm, densely pubescent in distal 1/2.

Paronychia rugelii

Paronychia sessiliflora

Phenology Flowering late spring–fall. Flowering summer.
Habitat Woodlands, fields, clearings, roadsides, waste places Dry, stony hillsides, summits, and sandstone mesas
Elevation 0-200 m (0-700 ft) 700-3100 m (2300-10200 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
FL; GA
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
CO; MT; ND; NE; NM; NV; OK; TX; UT; WY; AB; SK
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Of conservation concern.

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

Source FNA vol. 5, p. 41. FNA vol. 5, p. 42.
Parent taxa Caryophyllaceae > subfam. Paronychioideae > Paronychia Caryophyllaceae > subfam. Paronychioideae > Paronychia
Sibling taxa
P. ahartii, P. americana, P. argyrocoma, P. baldwinii, P. canadensis, 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. 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. 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. setacea, P. virginica, P. wilkinsonii
Synonyms Siphonychia rugelii, Gibbesia rugelii, Odontonychia interior, P. rugelii var. interior, Siphonychia interior
Name authority (Chapman) Shuttleworth ex Chapman: Fl. South. U.S. ed. 3, 397. (1897) Nuttall: Gen. N. Amer. Pl. 1: 160. (1818)
Web links