Flora of North America species comparison

procumbent to ascending, branched, leafy, 15–45 cm, lanuginose, often sparsely so, viscid distally.

erect, leafy proximally, 3–6(–15) cm, old leaves persistent at base.

mostly basal, densely crowded and imbricate, sessile;

blade 1(–3)-veined, linear-subulate to lanceolate, 0.4–1(–1.5) cm × 0.8–1.5(–2) mm, margins cartilaginous, often ciliolate especially proximally, apex acute, glabrous to scabrous.

2 per node;

proximal with blade obovate, spatulate, apex obtuse;

distal sessile, blade ovate to lanceolate, 2–5 cm × 2–20 mm, apex acute, sparsely pubescent adaxially, more densely so abaxially.

solitary flowers.

pseudoracemose, lax, solitary flowers in axils of leafy bracts.

2–40 mm.

erect in flower, sharply deflexed at base in fruit, usually shorter than calyx, pilose and stipitate-glandular.

bisexual or unisexual, all plants having both staminate and pistillate flowers, others having only pistillate flowers, subsessile or borne singly on peduncle;

calyx 10-veined, lateral veins absent, tubular to campanulate, (5–)7–10 mm, herbaceous, margins often purple tinged, dentate, sometimes ciliate, ± scarious, glabrous, lobes lanceolate to ovate, 1–2 mm;

petals bright pink, rarely white, limb unlobed to shallowly 2-fid, 2.5–3.5 mm, base tapered into claw, auricles and appendages poorly developed;

stamens exserted in staminate flowers, not so or aborted in pistillate flowers;

styles 3.

calyx prominently 10-veined, obovoid, especially in fruit, clavate, constricted around carpophore and narrowed at mouth, umbilicate, inflated, 13–18 mm, loose and papery, pubescence glandular and eglandular, sparsely lanuginose, veins parallel, green or purple, with pale commissures, lobes triangular, ca. 2 mm, apex obtuse;

corolla bright pink, clawed, claw equaling calyx, limb obtriangular, 2-lobed, 7–11 mm, lobes divergent, ovate, appendages 2, shorter than 1 mm, apex acute;

stamens slightly longer than petal claw;

stigmas 3, equaling petals.

3-locular, cylindric, equaling or to 2 times calyx, opening by 6 recurved teeth;

carpophore ca. 1 mm.

included in calyx, ovoid-conic, opening by 6 teeth;

carpophore 3–6 mm.

light brown, reniform, 0.8–1(–1.2) mm broad, dull, shallowly rugose.

dark brown, broadly reniform, 1.3–1.5 mm, with concentric crescents of shallow tubercles on both sides, margins with larger, deeper tubercles.

= 24.

= 24 (Europe).