Flora of North America species comparison

prostrate, glabrous or glandular-pubescent.

erect or, sometimes, prostrate or scandent, simple or branched, glabrous or pubescent, rarely with recurved prickles.

ocrea brown or reddish brown, cylindric to funnelform, 5–12 mm, chartaceous, base inflated or not, margins oblique, eciliate or ciliate with bristles to 1.5 mm, surface lanate, sometimes also glandular-pubescent;

petiole 2–5 mm, winged distally;

blade ovate to elliptic, 1.5–4(–6) × 0.6–2.5(–3.3) cm, base cuneate or tapering, margins ciliate with reddish, multicellular hairs, apex acute, faces glandular-pubescent abaxially and adaxially, not glandular-punctate.

deciduous, mostly cauline, alternate, petiolate or sessile;

ocrea persistent or disintegrating with age and deciduous entirely or distally, usually tan, brown, or reddish, chartaceous or partially to entirely foliaceous, rarely coriaceous proximally and chartaceous distally, glabrous or scabrous to variously pubescent, never 2-lobed distally;

blade lanceolate or ovate to hastate or sagittate, margins entire or, rarely, hastately lobed.

terminal, 5–20 × 7-18 mm;

peduncle 10–40 mm, glabrous or stipitate-glandular in distal 1/5;

ocreolae overlapping, margins eciliate.

terminal or terminal and axillary, spikelike, paniclelike, or capitate;

peduncle present.

spreading, 0.5–1 mm.

present or absent.

1–5 per ocreate fascicle;

perianth greenish white proximally, pinkish distally, urceolate, glabrous, nonaccrescent;

tepals 5, elliptic, 2–3 mm, apex acute to obtuse;

stamens 8, filaments distinct, free;

anthers pink to red, elliptic;

styles 3, connate to middle or distally.

bisexual (often functionally unisexual in P. amphibia and P. hydropiperoides), 1–14 per ocreate fascicle, base not stipelike;

perianth white, greenish white, roseate, red, or purple, campanulate or urceolate, rarely rotate, rarely becoming fleshy in fruit, glabrous, sometimes glandular-punctate, accrescent or nonaccrescent;

tepals 4–5, connate 1/4–2/3 their lengths (less than 1/5 their lengths in P. wallichii), petaloid, dimorphic, outer larger than inner;

stamens 5–8, filaments distinct or connate basally, outer ones sometimes adnate to perianth tube, glabrous;

anthers yellow, pink, or red, elliptic to ovate;

styles 2–3, erect to spreading or reflexed, distinct or connate;

stigmas capitate.

included, reddish brown to brownish black, 3-gonous, 1.5–2.2 × 1–1.5 mm, shiny, smooth or minutely punctate.

included or exserted, brown or dark brown to black, not winged, discoid, biconvex, 2–3-gonous, or spheroidal, glabrous.

embryo curved.

= 10, 11, 12.