Flora of North America species comparison

prostrate, branched, 4-sided, 3–23 cm, internodes equaling or longer than leaves, glabrous, rarely pilose.

branched, 4-angled, 1–4 cm, glabrous;

branches erect or ascending, thickly clothed with marcescent leaves.

sessile or short-petiolate;

blade broadly ovate to elliptic, 0.2–1.2 cm × 0.9–7 mm, base round or cuneate, margins entire, apex acute, shiny, glabrous or ciliate near base.

sessile;

basal blades oblanceolate to obovate or elliptic, 3–5 × 1–1.5 mm, succulent, base cuneate, margins entire, apex acute or abruptly acuminate to obtuse, glabrous;

cauline shorter.

with flowers solitary, axillary;

bracts absent.

solitary-flowered in axils of foliage leaves;

bract 1, foliaceous, ca. 1 mm.

spreading, 3–12 mm, glabrous.

1–5 mm, glabrous.

1.5–2 mm diam.;

sepals 4–5, veins obscure, midrib sometimes apparent, ± ovate, 1.5–3.5 mm, margins narrow, scarious, apex ± obtuse, glabrous;

petals absent;

stamens 10 or fewer;

styles 3(–4), curled, shorter than 0.5 mm.

unisexual, 3–4 mm diam.;

sepals 5, 3-veined, keeled, 2.5–3 mm, margins narrow, apex acute, glabrous or with sparse, short, glandular pubescence;

petals absent;

stamens 10, shorter than sepals;

styles 3, erect, becoming outwardly curved, ca. 1 mm; staminate flowers with brownish, peglike, conspicuous nectaries alternating with and attached to base of stamens; pistillate flowers with well-developed but nonfunctional stamens and nectaries.

green to pale straw colored, translucent, globose to broadly ovoid, 2.3–3.5 mm, 1.9–2 times as long as sepals, apex obtuse, opening by 6 valves;

carpophore absent.

straw colored, broadly ovoid, ca. 3 × 2 mm, ca. equaling sepals, apex obtuse, opening by 3 valves, each of which splits into 2;

carpophore absent.

grayish black, broadly elliptic, 0.5–0.7 mm diam., finely reticulate.

1, brown, broadly reniform with thickened rim, ca. 1.1 mm diam., finely verrucate.

= 26, 52, ca. 65, ca. 78.

= 26.