Flora of North America species comparison

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Zornia

viperina, zornia
Habit Herbs [subshrubs], perennial [annual], unarmed; roots slender.
Stems

prostrate or erect, glabrous or pubescent, sometimes glandular-pubescent.
Leaves

alternate, even-pinnate;

stipules present, paired, peltate;

petiolate;

leaflets 2 or 4, stipels absent, blade margins entire, surfaces sometimes punctate, glabrous or pubescent.
Inflorescences

1–15-flowered, terminal or axillary, spikes, erect;

bracts present, paired, peltate, auriculate, margins ciliate;

bracteoles absent.
Flowers

papilionaceous, chasmogamous;

calyx short-tubular, lobes 5, apex usually acute;

corolla yellow or orange-yellow;

banner longer, wider than wings;

wings not adnate to keel, auriculate;

keel subprostrate, incurved;

stamens 10, monadelphous, filaments equal;

anthers alternately dorsifixed and versatile, and sub-basifixed;

style curved, glabrous or pubescent.
Fruits

loments, stipitate [sessile], brown or tan, flattened, straight or curved, linear to oblong, indehiscent, glabrous or pubescent;

segments 2–15, breaking apart at maturity, margins ciliate, surfaces sometimes reticulate, often bristly with retrorse hairs.
Seeds

2–15, black [dark brown], compressed, ovoid.
x

= 10.

Zornia
Distribution
from USDA
Mexico; Central America; South America; s United States; West Indies; Asia; Africa; Indian Ocean Islands (Madagascar); Australia
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Species 75 (3 in the flora).

Zornia has traditionally been considered closely related to Stylosanthes, differing by its even-pinnate leaves without stipels and its loments with usually more than two segments. Molecular studies place Zornia closer to Adesmia de Candolle and Poiretia Ventenat in the Adesmia clade and rather distantly related to Stylosanthes (M. Lavin et al. 2001). The North American species of Zornia fall into three sections: sect. Zornia has four leaflets; sect. Isophylla Mohlenbrock has two leaflets, and the leaflets of proximal and distal leaves are essentially the same shape; sect. Anisophylla Mohlenbrock has two leaflets, and the leaflets of proximal and distal leaves differ in shape, with proximal ones usually broader and shorter, distal ones lanceolate to linear.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Leaflets 4.
Z. bracteata
1. Leaflets 2.
→ 2
2. Bracts (excluding auricles) 12+ mm, crowded; loments included within bracts or exserted by 1 or 2 segments.
Z. reticulata
2. Bracts (excluding auricles) less than 12 mm, much interrupted proximally becoming crowded distally; loments exserted beyond bracts by 3–8 segments.
Z. gemella
Source FNA vol. 11. Author: Robert H. Mohlenbrock.
Parent taxa Fabaceae > subfam. Faboideae
Subordinate taxa
Z. bracteata, Z. gemella, Z. reticulata
Name authority J. F. Gmelin: Syst. Nat. 2: 1076, 1096. (1792)
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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