Flora of North America species comparison

erect, 5–40 cm, softly pubescent to scabrous, eglandular or viscid-glandular, especially distally, very rarely glabrous, with several pairs of leaves equaling or shorter than internodes.

simple but with short axillary leafy shoots, leafy, 40–60 cm, glossy, ± glabrous, with 10–20 nodes proximal to inflorescence.

sessile, or basal with short pseudopetiole;

blade linear to lanceolate or broadly ovate, base round to cuneate, apex acute to shortly acuminate, puberulent on both surfaces, sometimes glandular.

basal withered at time of flowering;

cauline whorled, appearing fasciculate (more than 4) at each node, connate at base, reduced distally, tapered at both ends, blade linear to very narrowly elliptic-lanceolate, 0.5–8 cm × 1–12 mm, base broadened, margins scabrous, apex acute, subglabrous to minutely puberulent on both surfaces.

usually with single dichotomy, rarely double, open, bracteate, branches often elongate, flowers 1 per node;

bracts foliaceous.

thyrsate, verticillate, open, with many short, ascending branches bearing large numbers of small, unisexual flowers, bracteate;

bracts connate basally, triangular, 2–10 mm, margins finely ciliate, apex acuminate.

sharply reflexed at base, especially after anthesis, equaling calyx.

ascending, straight, fasciculate, wiry, ± equaling calyx, glabrous or sparsely and minutely puberulent.

nodding;

calyx obscurely 10-veined, broadly campanulate, lobed, 6–8 mm, enlarging to 13–16 mm in fruit, herbaceous, usually with short, dense pubescence throughout, often glandular-viscid, veins green, rarely purplish tinged, conspicuous pale commissures absent;

lobes ovate-triangular, 1/2 to equaling tube, herbaceous;

petals creamy white, often greenish abaxially, rarely pink tinged to dusky pink (subsp. campanulata), clawed, to 2 times calyx, claw villose, limb deeply divided and fan-shaped with many narrow, linear lobes, lobes rapidly curling, margins deeply divided or erose, appendages 2–4, to 2 mm;

stamens exserted;

filaments hairy at base;

styles 3, to 2 times calyx.

mostly unisexual;

calyx pale green, indistinctly 10-veined, elliptic, constricted near base, umbilicate, ca. 5 × 2 mm, lobes with thickened midrib, ovate-obtuse, 0.2 mm, margins crenate, membranous;

corolla greenish white, clawed, claw and limb not differentiated, narrowly oblong, unlobed, less than 2 times length of calyx, appendages absent;

stamens exserted, longer than corolla;

styles 3, exserted, longer than corolla.

ovoid, ca. equaling calyx and often splitting it, opening by 6 broadly triangular teeth;

carpophore 1–2.5 mm.

green, ovoid-conic, longer than calyx, opening by 6 teeth;

carpophore shorter than 1 mm.

brown, reniform, 2–2.5 mm broad, coarsely and ± evenly papillate;

papillae ca. as long as broad.

brown, winged, reniform, ca. 1 mm, faces with shallow radiating ridges.