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beach sand-spurrey, beach sand-spurry, sticky sand spurry, sticky sand-spurrey

Photo is of parent taxon

sticky sandspurry, white sticky sand spurry

Habit Plants strongly perennial with branched, woody base, stout, 5–40 cm, densely stipitate-glandular in inflorescence or throughout. Plants 10–40 cm.
Taproots

becoming stout, woody.

Stems

erect or ascending to prostrate, usually branched proximally;

main stem 0.8–3 mm diam. proximally.

usually ascending to erect, sometimes prostrate.

Leaves

stipules conspicuous, dull white to tan, narrowly triangular, 4.5–11 mm, apex long-acuminate;

blade linear, (0.6–)1–5.5 cm, fleshy, apex apiculate to spine-tipped;

axillary leaves 1–2+ per cluster.

stipules 6–9 mm;

blade 1.5–5.5 cm.

Pedicels

erect, divergent, or reflexed in fruit.

Flowers

sepals connate 0.5–1.8 mm proximally, lobes often 3-veined, ovate to lanceolate, 4.5–7 mm, to 8 mm in fruit, margins 0.3–0.7 mm wide, apex blunt to rounded;

petals white or pink to rosy, elliptic to obovate, 0.9–1.3 times as long as sepals in flower;

stamens 9–10;

styles 0.6–3 mm.

sepal lobes ± lanceolate, 4.5–5.5 mm, to 6.5 mm in fruit;

petals white, 1–1.1 times as long as sepals;

styles 1.2–1.9 mm.

Capsules

tan, 4.6–10 mm, 0.8–1.4 times as long as sepals.

1.2–1.4 times as long as sepals.

Seeds

± red-brown, often with submarginal groove or depression, suborbiculate to pyriform, compressed, (0.6–)0.7–1.2 mm, smooth to faintly or prominently tuberculate or sculpturing of parallel, wavy lines or of low, rounded mounds, not papillate;

wing absent or white to reddish brown proximally, 0.1–0.3 mm wide, margins irregular.

dark red-brown, not grooved, suborbiculate, 0.7–0.8 mm, smooth to faintly tuberculate (40x);

wing absent or 0.1–0.3 mm wide.

Cymes

simple to 3-compound or flowers solitary and axillary.

Spergularia macrotheca

Spergularia macrotheca var. leucantha

Phenology Flowering spring.
Habitat Alkaline soils, floodplains, vernal pools, meadows, marshy ground
Elevation 0-800 m (0-2600 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
CA; OR; WA; BC; including nw Mexico
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
from FNA
CA
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Varieties 3 (3 in the flora).

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)

Key
1. Petals pink to rosy; styles 0.6-1.2 mm
var. macrotheca
1. Petals white; styles 1.2-3 mm
→ 2
2. Capsules 1.2-1.4 times as long as sepals; styles 1.2-1.9 mm
var. leucantha
2. Capsules 0.8-1 times as long as sepals; styles 2-3 mm
var. longistyla
Source FNA vol. 5, p. 18. FNA vol. 5, p. 18.
Parent taxa Caryophyllaceae > subfam. Polycarpoideae > Spergularia Caryophyllaceae > subfam. Polycarpoideae > Spergularia > Spergularia macrotheca
Sibling taxa
S. atrosperma, S. bocconi, S. canadensis, S. diandra, S. echinosperma, S. media, S. platensis, S. rubra, S. salina, S. villosa
S. macrotheca var. longistyla, S. macrotheca var. macrotheca
Subordinate taxa
S. macrotheca var. leucantha, S. macrotheca var. longistyla, S. macrotheca var. macrotheca
Synonyms Arenaria macrotheca Tissa leucantha
Name authority (Hornemann ex Chamisso & Schlechtendal) Heynhold: Alph. Aufz. Gew. 689. (1846) (Greene) B. L. Robinson: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 29: 313. (1894)
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