Sabatia brevifolia
Sabatia foliosa
Elliott's or narrow-leaf or short-leaf sabatia, shortleaf rose gentian
leafy marsh-pink or rose-gentian
single, terete, 1.5–7 dm, branching all or mostly alternate.
several–many, scattered or loosely clustered, terete or distally 4-ridged but not angled or winged, 0.8–7(–10) dm, branching generally all or mostly alternate, rarely all opposite.
all cauline or basal occasionally persistent at flowering time;
blade linear to oblong-lanceolate, 0.5–3 cm × 1–5(–7) mm.
basal absent at flowering time, internodes between cauline leaves generally less than 1.25 times as long as subtending leaves;
blade ovate-lanceolate to elliptic or linear, 1.5–6 cm × 4–14(–20) mm.
open cymes or solitary flowers at ends of branches;
pedicels (10–)20–40(–50) mm.
open, few-flowered monochasial cymes or solitary flowers at ends of branches;
pedicels 10–70(–100) mm.
5-merous;
calyx tube obconic, 1–3 mm, mid- and commissural veins about equally prominent, not or low-ridged, lobes filiform, 3–8 mm;
corolla white, eye greenish yellow, projections of eye into corolla lobes without a contrasting border, tube 1–3 mm, lobes oblanceolate, 6–18 × 2–7 mm, apex obtuse to acute;
anthers coiling circinately.
7–12(–14)-merous;
calyx tube shallowly campanulate, 1.5–4 mm, mid- and commissural veins about equally prominent, 4-ridged;
lobes linear to narrowly spatulate or ± foliaceous, 10–20 mm;
corolla purplish pink or rarely white, eye yellow, projections of eye into corolla lobes oblong, sometimes shallowly 3-lobed, usually with a red border, tube (3–)4–8 mm, lobes oblanceolate to narrowly spatulate-obovate, 12–30 × 3–10 mm, apex rounded to subacute;
anthers coiling circinately.
= 32.
= 38.
Sabatia brevifolia
Sabatia foliosa
Reports of Sabatia brevifolia from Louisiana were based on a specimen of questionable provenance and are considered probably erroneous by students of that state’s flora.
In some older literature, the name Sabatia difformis was misapplied to S. brevifolia.
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Sabatia foliosa has often been treated as a variety of S. dodecandra. Its recognition at specific status follows R. L. Wilbur (1970b) and J. D. Perry (1971). As the internodes of S. foliosa are generally less than 1.25 times as long as, and often shorter than, the subtending leaves, whereas those of S. dodecandra are mostly 1.25–3.5 times as long, this species has a more leafy appearance than S. dodecandra. The leaves of S. foliosa are thinner in texture than those of S. dodecandra; the apices of the mid-stem leaves of S. foliosa are usually obtuse and those of the distal leaves merely subacute, whereas the apices of the mid-stem and distal leaves of S. dodecandra are usually acute; and the corolla lobes of S. foliosa are proportionately narrower than those of S. dodecandra (M. L. Fernald 1902; Wilbur 1955). Because of its stoloniferous habit, S. foliosa often forms dense colonies, which S. dodecandra does not. Natural hybrids between these taxa are unknown, and artificial hybrids are sterile (Wilbur 1970b; Perry).
(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
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