Flora of North America species comparison

scandent, ribbed, glabrous;

prickles 1–1.5 mm.

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

ocrea brownish, cylindric, (3–)5–13 mm, chartaceous, base inflated or not, without prickles, margins oblique, glabrous or ciliate at tip with bristles 0.2–1 mm, surface glabrous;

petiole 0.5–4 cm;

blade broadly lanceolate to oblong, 2–8.5 × 1–3 cm, base sagittate to cordate, margins entire, ciliate or eciliate, apex obtuse to acute, faces glabrous or densely appressed-pubescent, usually with retrorse prickles along midvein abaxially.

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.

capitate or paniclelike, uninterrupted, 5–15 × 4–10 mm;

peduncle 10–80 mm, usually glabrous, sometimes with retrorse prickles proximally;

ocreolae overlapping, margins eciliate.

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

peduncle present.

mostly ascending, 1–1.5 mm.

present or absent.

2–3 per ocreate fascicle;

perianth white or greenish white, often tinged pink or red, sometimes entirely pink, glabrous, accrescent, not becoming blue and fleshy in fruit;

tepals 5, connate 1/3–1/2 their length, broadly elliptic, 3–5 mm, apex obtuse;

stamens 8, filaments distinct, free;

anthers pink, ovate;

styles 3, connate to middle.

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 or styles exserted, light or dark brown to black, 3-gonous, 2.5–4 × 1.8–2.5 mm, dull to shiny, smooth to 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.

= 40.