Flora of North America species comparison

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

decumbent or ascending, straggling, diffusely branched, smoothly 4-angled, 20–90 cm, brittle, glabrous.

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;

blade linear-lanceolate to narrowly lanceolate, widest near base, 1.5–4 cm × 1–6 mm, base round, margins smooth, apex acute, often ciliate near base, otherwise glabrous, not glaucous.

with flowers solitary, axillary;

bracts absent.

terminal, 5–many-flowered, open, conspicuously branched cymes;

bracts narrowly lanceolate, 1–5 mm, wholly scarious, margins ciliate, apex acuminate.

spreading, 3–12 mm, glabrous.

divaricate, 10–30 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.

5–12 mm diam., rarely larger;

sepals 5, distinctly 3-veined, narrowly lanceolate to triangular, 3–7 mm, margins narrow, straight, scarious, apex acute, glabrous;

petals 5, 3–7 mm, equaling or longer than sepals;

stamens 10, all, some, or none fully developed and fertile;

styles 3, ascending, ca. 3 mm.

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.

green or straw colored, narrowly ovoid, 5–7 mm, longer than sepals, apex acute, opening by 3 valves, splitting into 6;

carpophore absent.

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

reddish brown, reniform-rotund, ca. 1 mm diam., rugose in concentric rings.

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

= 39, 52.