Petrorhagia prolifera
Petrorhagia
childing pink, pink grass, proliferous childing-pink, proliferous pink, prolific petrorhagia
pink, proliferous pink
slender to stout Stems erect or ascending, simple or branched proximally, terete or angular.
erect, simple or branched, (6–)20–30(–60) cm;
internodes glabrous or midstem ones slightly scabrous.
sheath 1–2 mm, ± as long as wide;
blade 3-veined, linear to linear-lanceolate, 10–30 mm, margins serrate-scabrous.
connate proximally into sheath, sessile;
blade 1- or 3-veined, linear to narrowly oblanceolate, apex acute.
capitate;
inflorescence bracts and involucel bracteoles enclosing flowers, broadly ovate, brown-scarious, apex obtuse or of outer bracts mucronate.
terminal, dense capitula or lax cymes, or flowers solitary;
bracts paired, brown-scarious and often enclosing inflorescence;
involucel bracteoles of 1–3 pairs [or absent], similar in size and texture.
0.1–1.5 mm.
erect.
sepals (7–)10–12 mm;
petals pink to slightly purplish (rarely white), primary veins 1, veins not darkly colored near base of blade, apex truncate or emarginate.
bisexual, occasionally unisexual and female;
sepals connate proximally into tube, 4–15 mm;
tube green or reddish and white or brown-scarious, 15-veined, cylindric, terete, commissures between sepals veinless, broad, scarious;
lobes green, reddish, or brown, 3-veined, oblong, shorter than tube, margins white or brown, scarious, apex rounded;
petals 5, pink or purplish to white, clawed (or not in P. saxifraga), auricles absent, coronal appendages absent, blade apex entire and obtuse to 2-fid to 1/16 of length;
nectaries at filament bases;
stamens 10;
filaments distinct;
staminodes absent;
ovary 1-locular;
styles 2, filiform, 2–9 mm, glabrous proximally;
stigmas 2, linear along adaxial surface of styles, papillate (30x).
4-lobed, oblong, shorter than sepals, opening by 4 slightly recurving or straight teeth;
carpophore present.
shield-shaped, 1.1–1.6(–1.8) mm, fine to coarsely reticulate.
8–15, blackish brown, shield- or helmet-shaped, dorsiventrally compressed, reticulate to papillate, marginal wing absent, appendage absent;
embryo central, straight.
= [13?, 14?], 15.
= 30 (Europe).
Petrorhagia prolifera
Petrorhagia
Historical records for Petrorhagia prolifera exist also for California (1902; Congdon s.n., MIN), Ohio (last collected in 1896; Stair s.n., OS), and South Carolina (1800s; Durand s.n., NY).
Petrorhagia prolifera has been known in the northeastern United States since at least 1837, and its range has since expanded, with isolated populations occurring southwestward from New Jersey toward Arkansas and Oklahoma as well as western Michigan. Some introductions may have been as a contaminant in grass seed used for highway planting in Tennessee (B. E. Wofford et al. 1977). Literature reports of P. prolifera in Louisiana and West Virginia have not been confirmed.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Species 33 (4 in the flora).
Some authors, e.g., V. Bittrich (1993), prefer to split Petrorhagia as shown in couplet one of the key below, recognizing the five species in the genus with broad, brown-scarious bracts enclosing much of the inflorescence as the genus Kohlrauschia Kunth. While a dorsiventrally compressed seed with a straight, central embryo is common to all species, Petrorhagia is morphologically diverse, with five sections recognized by P. W. Ball and V. H. Heywood (1964), and in many ways morphologically intermediate between Dianthus and Gypsophila. If Kohlrauschia is recognized, the inflorescence is the only character not shared by at least a few other species of Petrorhagia.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Flowers in lax cymes or solitary; pedicels 5-20 mm; inflorescence bracts brown-scarious, linear to narrowly ovate, not enclosing flowers; involucel bracteoles scarious, narrowly ovate, less than 1/ 2 length of sepals; sepals 4-6 mm [sect. Petrorhagia] | P. saxifraga |
1. Flowers in capitate inflorescences, rarely appearing solitary; pedicels 0.1-3 mm; inflorescence bracts and involucel bracteoles brown-scarious, broadly ovate, ± equaling sepals, enclosing flowers; sepals (5-)10-15 mm [sect. Kohlrauschia (Kunth) P. W. Ball & Heywood] | → 2 |
2. Leaf sheaths ± as long as wide, usually 1-2 mm; petals with apex truncate or emarginate, dark-colored veins absent | P. prolifera |
2. Leaf sheaths 1.5-3 times as long as wide, usually 3-9 mm; petals with apex obcordate or 2-fid, dark-colored veins 1-6 | → 3 |
3. Seeds (1.3-)1.5-1.8 mm, shield-shaped, tuberculate; leaf sheaths (2-)3-4 mm; apices of inner inflorescence bracts obtuse or mucronate; dark-colored petal veins 1(-3) | P. nanteuilii |
3. Seeds 1-1.4 mm, helmet-shaped, covered with conical papillae; leaf sheaths (3-)4-9 mm; apices of inner inflorescence bracts mucronate; dark-colored petal veins 3(-6) | P. dubia |
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