Triodanis leptocarpa (Nutt.) Nieuwl.Slender-Leaved Venus' Looking Glass | |
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Native CC = 5 CW = 5 MOC = 28 |
© DETenaglia |
Family - Campanulaceae Stems - To 70cm, herbaceous, simple, from taproot, angular, strigose on angles, to 3mm thick, erect, with milky sap. Leaves - Alternate, linear to (ob)lanceolate, sessile to short-petiolate, entire to crenate, to 25mm long, 5mm broad, strigose below, typically glabrous above.
Inflorescence - Axillary clusters of typically 2-3 chasmogamous flowers but sometimes single, lower flowers cleistogamous. Upper flowers - Chasmogamous. Corolla blue-purple, 5-lobed, -2cm broad, glabrous. Lobes to 8mm long, 3-4mm broad, lance-ovate. Tube to 1.5cm long. Stamens 5, adnate at base of corolla tube, alternating with lobes. Filaments purple, 1.5mm long. Anthers yellow, filiform, 2-3mm long, connate around style and stigma, curling when mature and dehiscing. Style 1, 7mm long, glabrous, white below, purple above. Stigma 2-lobed. Ovary inferior. Calyx tube to 1.5cm long, 1.8mm in diameter, 5-lobed, scabrous. Lobes spreading to recurved, linear, to 8mm long, strigose. Fruit many seeded. Lower flowers - Cleistogamous. Calyx tube to 1.5cm long, lobes to 6mm long, spreading or slightly recurving.
Flowering - May - June. Habitat - Disturbed sites, waste ground, pastures, prairies, roadsides, railroads. Origin - Native to U.S. Other info. - The typical leaf morphology is linear. This species is common in drier areas of the habitats mentioned above. The fruits are dimorphic with the cleistogamous flowers producing a slightly larger capsule. Photographs taken at Dave Rock Conservation Area, St. Clair County, MO., 5-12-00 & 6-7-03 (DETenaglia); also near Cedar Fourche, AR, 5-5-2015 (SRTurner). |