Rhinotropis
Rhinotropis lindheimeri
milkwort
shrubby milkwort
usually sprawling to erect, sometimes prostrate or decumbent, usually not glaucous, pubescent or glabrous.
decumbent to erect, usually pubescent, rarely glabrous, hairs spreading or incurved.
alternate;
sessile, subsessile, or petiolate; usually not strongly dimorphic;
blade surfaces pubescent or glabrous.
subsessile to petiolate, petiole to 1(–1.5) mm;
blade elliptic to linear, lanceolate, ovate, obovate, or scalelike, (3–)4–41 × (0.5–)1–12(–18) mm, base rounded to cuneate, apex obtuse to rounded, surfaces pubescent or glabrous, hairs incurved or spreading.
terminal, usually leaf-opposed, often also from near base of plant, these usually with chasmogamous flowers, occasionally bearing reduced, beakless cleistogamous or semi-cleistogamous flowers, rarely with cleistogamous or semi-cleistogamous flowers throughout, 1–12(–15) × 0.3–1.5 cm;
rachis not thorn-tipped;
peduncle 0–1 cm;
bracts usually persistent, ovate, lanceolate, or elliptic.
terminal or leaf-opposed, sometimes appearing axillary if poorly developed, racemes, sometimes reduced and appearing fasciculate or aggregated into pseudopanicles;
peduncle present or absent;
bracts deciduous to subpersistent or persistent.
present.
1–4.5 mm, pubescent.
cream, yellowish green,yellow, white, pink, rose, or purple, cleistogamous usually absent, sometimes present (in R. californica and R. lindheimeri), (2.4–)3.5–14.5 mm;
sepals deciduous or persistent (when persistent, usually only upper; all persistent in R. rusbyi), sometimes appearing very slightly connate basally, pubescent or glabrous;
wings deciduous, 2.5–12.5 mm, glabrous or pubescent;
keel usually beaked with unlobed projection, beak sometimes reduced or obscure (rarely on all flowers unless cleistogamous, and then inflorescence usually proximal), keel glabrous or pubescent;
stamens usually 7 or 8, rarely 9 (in R. acanthoclada), in chasmogamous flowers, fewer in cleistogamous flowers, not grouped;
ovary 2-loculed.
usually pink to purple, rarely white, keel yellowish distally, wings pink or rose, (3.7–)4–7.4(–7.7) mm;
upper sepal persistent, other sepals deciduous, upper sepal ovate, 1.7–4.5(–5.2) mm, lower sepals lanceolate to obovate, (1.3–)1.6–3.5(–3.8) mm, pubescent or glabrous;
wings obovate to oblong-obovate, 3–6.4(–7.2) × (1.2–)1.4–3.2 mm, glabrous or pubescent;
keel (2.7–)3.1–6.2 mm, sac glabrous or with scattered hairs, beak linear (or bluntly rounded), (0–)0.5–2 × (0–)0.2–0.6 mm, glabrous or pubescent.
capsules, dehiscent, margins winged or not, glabrous or pubescent.
ellipsoid, oblong, slightly ovoid, or obovoid, 3.3–6(–6.8) × 2–4 mm, base rounded to subtruncate, often oblique, margins with narrow wing or not winged, usually pubescent, rarely subglabrous.
pubescent to subglabrous, arillate.
2.8–4.3 mm, pubescent;
aril 0.7–2.5 mm, lobes to 3/4 length of seed.
= 9.
Rhinotropis
Rhinotropis lindheimeri
Species 17 (12 in the flora).
Of the 17 species of Rhinotropis ranging from the southwestern United States and/or Mexico, only R. purpusii (Brandegee) J. R. Abbott extends into Guatemala. Of all the genera treated here, this is the only one that has been monographed within the last 100 years (T. L. Wendt 1978). Rhinotropis is probably sister to the Caribbean clade Phlebotaenia Grisebach, and appears to be fairly closely related also to the pantropical (although predominantly neotropical) genus Securidaca Linnaeus. Rhinotropis is largely endemic to arid regions but some species (R. californica) occur in mesic areas.
The flower beak is a cylindric, conic, or contorted non-fimbriate hollow projection from the lower (or central) apex of the keel region. It is highly reduced or absent in some species. The other diagnostic features of Rhinotropis are also not monothetic across all species. Many species have the upper sepal persistent in fruit and the other sepals, including the wings (and the corolla), deciduous. Unlike other North American Polygalaceae, species of Rhinotropis often have five petals; the lateral petals are much reduced, linear, and adnate for most of their length to the staminal column; additionally, several species are shrubs and a few have thorn-tipped inflorescence axes.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Varieties 3 (2 in the flora).
Variety eucosma (S. F. Blake) T. Wendt is known from northern Mexico.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
1. Shrubs or subshrubs; racemes thorn-tipped; sepals deciduous. | → 2 |
2. Flowers (2.5–)3–5(–5.3) mm; sepal wings usually cream or greenish; keel petals without beaks or beaks to 0.5–0.7 mm; stems densely pubescent to glabrate, not glaucous. | → 3 |
3. Leaves and stems densely pubescent, with short, spreading hairs; pedicels 1.5–4(–5.8) mm, usually shorter than flowers, pubescent; non-wing sepals pubescent, hairs spreading. | R. acanthoclada |
3. Leaves densely pubescent with incurved hairs, stems densely pubescent or glabrate, hairs matted or shaggy, appressed, incurved or, sometimes, spreading; pedicels (2.5–)3–7(–9) mm, usually longer than flowers, glabrous; non-wing sepals glabrous or subapically sparsely hairy. | R. intermontana |
2. Flowers (6–)7–14.5 mm; sepal wings usually pink, sometimes light green; keel petals with prominent beaks (1–4 mm); stems glabrous or pubescent, often glaucous, at least when young. | → 4 |
4. Keel petal beaks with 1 or 2 prominent invaginations along abaxial side (formed by sinuate excess tissue); seeds most densely pubescent apically, proximal 1/2 sparsely and unevenly pubescent or glabrous. | R. heterorhyncha |
4. Keel petal beaks entire or slightly erose; seeds ± evenly and moderately densely pubescent, occasionally with glabrate patches. | R. subspinosa |
1. Herbs, subshrubs, or shrubs; racemes usually not thorn-tipped (except usually weakly thorn-tipped in R. rusbyi, then all sepals persistent in fruit); upper sepal persistent in fruit or all deciduous. | → 5 |
5. Flowers (2.5–)7–14.5 mm (smaller cleistogamous flowers sometimes present in R. californica proximally); sepals all deciduous or all persistent. | → 6 |
6. Sepals persistent; racemes usually weakly thorn-tipped (often not clearly visible when young); Arizona. | R. rusbyi |
6. Sepals deciduous; racemes not thorn-tipped; California, Oregon. | → 7 |
7. Keel petal beaks oblong, usually notched or contorted, rarely subentire, 0.7–1 mm wide distally; cleistogamous flowers often present, 2.4–5 mm, chasmogamous flowers 9–14.5 mm; perennials, 0.5–3.5 dm; stems laxly erect, decumbent, or prostrate. | R. californica |
7. Keel petal beaks linear, entire, 0.2 mm wide distally; flowers all chasmogamous, 7–14 mm; perennials, subshrubs, or shrubs, 1–25 dm; stems erect to sprawling or decumbent. | R. cornuta |
5. Flowers (2.4–)2.9–7.5(–7.7) mm; upper sepal persistent, others deciduous. | → 8 |
8. Racemes usually leaf-opposed; keel petals usually with glabrous sacs, beaks (0–)0.5–2 mm; leaf blades usually elliptic, ovate, obovate, lanceolate, or linear, sometimes scalelike, (3–)4–35(–40) mm. | → 9 |
9. Roots with brown, gray, or dull red-brown cortex, not exfoliating. | R. lindheimeri |
9. Roots with prominent bright orange-red cortex, loosely exfoliating. | R. nitida |
8. Racemes terminal, sometimes appearing axillary, but not leaf-opposed; keel petals with incurved-puberulent sacs in distal 1/2, beaks small, occasionally to 1.1 mm; leaf blades usually scalelike, linear, linear-subulate, lanceolate, elliptic, obovate, or ovate, 1–5.9(–15) mm. | → 10 |
10. Herbs often loosely mat-forming; stems prostrate to laxly erect, not glaucous, glabrous or very sparsely pubescent; leaf blades elliptic, obovate, ovate, or scalelike, (1.5–)2–5.9(–8) mm. | R. rimulicola |
10. Subshrubs broomlike, not mat-forming; stems usually erect, glaucous and glabrous, or not glaucous and sparsely puberulent, rarely glabrate; leaf blades often scalelike, sometimes elliptic, linear-subulate, lanceolate, or obovate, some early deciduous, appearing absent, 1–4(–15) mm. | → 11 |
11. Flowers pink; capsule bases cuneate; seed bodies often more sparsely pubescent to subglabrous in distal 1/5–1/2; stems usually glaucous, at least proximally, and glabrous. | R. maravillasensis |
11. Flowers usually white or cream, often with purplish center stripe, rarely pink; capsule bases rounded or subtruncate; seed bodies usually evenly pubescent; stems not glaucous, usually sparsely pubescent, rarely glabrate. | R. nudata |
1. Stems usually with spreading hairs, hairs rarely somewhat crisped, mostly 0.3–0.5 mm; leaf blades usually elliptic, ovate, or obovate proximally, distally becoming narrowly so, venation usually prominently reticulate, surfaces pubescent (not glabrous); keel sacs glabrous or with scattered, spreading hairs proximally, hairs not incurved in distal 1/2. | var. lindheimeri |
1. Stems usually with incurved hairs, hairs rarely irregularly spreading, 0.07–0.15 mm, rarely glabrous; leaf blades lanceolate, linear, or scalelike to elliptic, ovate, or obovate, venation usually not prominently reticulate (usually midvein prominent abaxially, occasionally reticulate), surfaces pubescent or glabrous; keel sacs glabrous or, rarely, with incurved hairs in distal 1/2. | var. parvifolia |
- Local floras:
CA - Local Web sites: CalFlora, CalPhotos
WildflowerSearch
iNaturalist (observations)- LBJ Wildflower Center
- SEINet
- Plants of the World Online
- Encyclopedia of Life
- Wikipedia
- Google Image Search
