Flora of North America species comparison

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Suksdorfia

mock brookfoam, suksdorfia
Habit Herbs, not rhizomatous, not stoloniferous; base of slender caudex bearing bulbils.
Flowering stems

erect, leafy, 8–40 cm, stipitate-glandular.
Leaves

in basal rosette and cauline;

cauline leaves reduced distally;

stipules of basal leaves inconspicuous, stipules of cauline leaves conspicuous;

petiole sparsely to moderately stipitate-glandular;

blade reniform to orbiculate, usually 3–9-lobed, base cordate to truncate, ultimate margins irregularly crenate, ciliate, apex obtuse to rounded, surfaces glabrous or sparsely stipitate-glandular;

venation palmate.
Inflorescences

flat-topped panicles of simple or compound cymes, terminal from terminal bud in rosette, 2–35-flowered, bracteate or ebracteate.
Flowers

hypanthium adnate to ovary in proximal 7/8, free from ovary 0.3–1 mm, greenish (with purple band distally in S. ranunculifolia);

sepals 5, greenish (with purple margins in S. violacea);

petals 5, white or pink, purple, or violet;

nectary tissue partially covering ovary (in S. ranunculifolia) or absent (in S. violacea);

stamens 5;

filaments filiform;

ovary 1/2–3/4 inferior, 2-locular, carpels connate proximally;

placentation axile;

styles absent or 2;

stigmas 2.
Capsules

2(–3)-beaked.
Seeds

(50–75), dark brown, ellipsoid and prismatic (or angular), warty.
x

= 7.

Suksdorfia
Distribution
from USDA
w North America; South America (Argentina, Bolivia)
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Hemieva Rafinesque, name rejected

Species 3 (2 in the flora).

Suksdorfia has been split into three monospecific genera by different authors. The work of R. J. Gornall and B. A. Bohm (1980, 1984, 1985) emphasized the similarities of the species in supporting a single genus concept. More recent, molecular data (D. E. Soltis et al. 1993; L. A. Johnson and Soltis 1994) suggest that S. violacea is more closely related to species of Bolandra, that S. ranunculifolia is more closely related to species of Boykinia, and that the two North American species indeed should be placed into monospecific genera. The South American species is S. alchemilloides (Grisebach) Engler of northern Argentina and Bolivia.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Leaf blades shallowly lobed; stipules of all cauline leaves conspicuous; petals erect, usually pink to violet, rarely white (sometimes drying bluish), elliptic to obovate, 6-9 mm.
S. violacea
1. Leaf blades deeply lobed; stipules of proximal cauline leaves barely expanded bases of petiole, stipules of distal cauline leaves conspicuous; petals spreading, white (sometimes pink tipped), broadly elliptic to obovate, 3-5 mm.
S. ranunculifolia
Source FNA vol. 8, p. 124. Authors: Elizabeth Fortson Wells, Patrick E. Elvander†.
Parent taxa Saxifragaceae
Subordinate taxa
S. ranunculifolia, S. violacea
Name authority A. Gray: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 15: 41. 1879, name conserved ,
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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