Flora of North America species comparison

erect or trailing, branched, square, weak, to 25(–35) cm, glabrous or pilose, never papillate.

sessile or subsessile;

blade ovate to elliptic, rarely oblong, widest proximal to middle, 5–25 mm, thin, base round, margins entire, apex acute, glabrous or rarely ciliate.

terminal, 1–5-flowered cymes;

bracts foliaceous.

ascending, not reflexed, 5–25(–50) mm, glabrous.

3–5 mm;

sepals 5, obscurely veined, ovate, 2–2.5 mm (rarely 3.5 in fruit), margins broad, scarious, apex broadly acute, glabrous;

petals absent or 1–5, 1–1.5 mm, shorter than sepals, blade apex deeply lobed;

stamens 5;

styles 3, usually curved, 0.4–0.9 mm.

green, semitransparent, globose to broadly ovoid, 3–5 mm, to 1.5 times as long as broad, longer than sepals, apex obtuse, opening by 3 valves;

carpophore absent.

brown, ovate, 0.5–0.9 mm, smooth or shallowly tuberculate.

= 26.