Flora of North America species comparison

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Sidotheca

starry puncturebract
Habit Herbs, annual; taproots slender.
Stems

arising directly from the root, spreading or prostrate, sometimes erect, solid, not fistulose or disarticulating into ringlike segments, glabrous or sparsely glandular.
Leaves

persistent or quickly deciduous, basal, rosulate;

petioles indistinct;

blade broadly linear or spatulate to oblanceolate, margins entire, strigose and glandular.
Inflorescences

terminal, cymose;

branches mostly dichotomous, not brittle or disarticulating into segments, round, glabrous or sparsely glandular;

bracts (2–)3(–4) at first node, 2–3 at distal nodes, distinct or connate, often positioned to side of node, scalelike, triangular or linear to ovate and 3-lobed, awned, sparsely glandular.
Peduncles

present or absent, erect to spreading.
Involucres

1 per node, not ribbed, tubular, narrowly turbinate to funnelform;

teeth 5(–6), awn-tipped.
Flowers

2–5(–10) per involucre at any single time during full anthesis;

perianth white to rose or greenish yellow to red, funnelform when open, tubular when closed, hirsute and sparsely glandular abaxially;

tepals 6, connate 1/4–1/3 their length, monomorphic, 3–5-lobed or laciniate apically;

stamens 9;

filaments basally adnate, glabrous or minutely papillate basally;

anthers red to maroon, ellipsoid or oblong to oval.
Achenes

usually included, golden- to red-brown, not winged, 3-gonous, glabrous.
Seeds

embryo curved.
x

= 20.

Sidotheca
Distribution
from FNA
CA; nw Mexico
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Species 3 (3 in the flora).

Sidotheca is allied to Eriogonum subg. Ganysma, approaching E. inerme in terms of foliar and overall habit. The trilobed to laciniate tepals resemble those of certain species of Chorizanthe. It is possible, as B. Ertter (1980) suggested, that the taxon was derived from Acanthoscyphus. In the 1950s, G. J. Goodman (1904–1999) proposed its recognition at generic rank, using the parahomonym “Neoxytheca.”

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Involucres funnelform, white-margined, bracts connate more than 3/ 4 their length; tepals 3-5-lobed apically, lobes laciniate
S. emarginata
1. Involucres narrowly to broadly turbinate, concolored, bracts connate ca. 1/ 2 their length; tepals 3-lobed apically, lobes laciniate or not
→ 2
2. Perianths 1-2 mm, greenish yellow to red; tepals 3-lobed apically 1/ 5 their length; peduncles present or absent; awns of involucral bracts 0.3-1 mm; awns of inflorescence bracts 0.2-0.5 mm
S. caryophylloides
2. Perianths 2.5-4 mm, white to pink; tepals 3-lobed apically 1/ 1/ 2 their length; peduncles present; awns of involucral bracts 0.3-2 mm; awns of inflorescence bracts 0.8-1 mm
S. trilobata
Source FNA vol. 5, p. 439. Author: James L. Reveal.
Parent taxa Polygonaceae > subfam. Eriogonoideae
Subordinate taxa
S. caryophylloides, S. emarginata, S. trilobata
Synonyms Oxytheca section Neoxytheca
Name authority Reveal: Harvard Pap. Bot. 9: 211. (2004)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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