Flora of North America species comparison

solitary or numerous, decumbent and rooting at base, becoming erect, 5–14(–25) cm, with gray, soft, curly to retrorsely crispate pubescence, rarely glandular.

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

blade spatulate or narrowly lanceolate to oblanceolate, sometimes broadly so, 4–7(–10) cm × 8–12(–20) mm, reduced toward base, apex acute, pubescent on both surfaces, especially on midrib;

subterranean bractlike, papery.

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.

reduced to single, terminal flower or open, (1–)3–5(–9)-flowered cyme, bracteate;

bracts leaflike, reduced distally to ca. 1 cm.

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

ascending, straight, 1–6 cm, with a short canescence.

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

calyx 10-veined, broadly tubular in flower, 12–25  5–8 mm, turbinate in fruit and swelling in middle to ca. 10 mm broad, canescent, rarely sparsely pubescent or glandular;

lobes lanceolate, 4–7 mm, with narrow, membranous margins, apex acute;

corolla coral pink or white, clawed, claw equaling calyx;

limb 4-lobed, usually deeply so, rarely 2-lobed with smaller lateral teeth, lobes 7–22 mm, appendages 2, linear, 1.5–3.5 mm (absent in subsp. bolanderi);

stamens slightly longer than corolla claw;

stigmas 3, slightly longer than corolla claw.

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.

ovoid to oblong, equaling calyx, dehiscing by 6 teeth;

carpophore 2–5 mm.

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

carpophore 3–6 mm.

dark brown to black, reniform, ca. 2 mm broad, with concentric rings of small papillae.

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

= 24 (Europe).