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creeping nailwort, low nailwort

Habit Plants perennial, densely cespitose and mat-forming; caudex branched, woody.
Stems

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

Leaves

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

Utricles

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

Paronychia sessiliflora

Phenology Flowering summer.
Habitat Dry, stony hillsides, summits, and sandstone mesas
Elevation 700-3100 m (2300-10200 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CO; MT; ND; NE; NM; NV; OK; TX; UT; WY; AB; SK
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Source FNA vol. 5, p. 42.
Parent taxa 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. rugelii, P. setacea, P. virginica, P. wilkinsonii
Name authority Nuttall: Gen. N. Amer. Pl. 1: 160. (1818)
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