Hylodesmum nudiflorum

Stems dimorphic; leafy stems ascending to erect, unbranched, 10–50 cm, glabrous or sparsely pilose; leafless or nearly leafless stems essentially peduncles arising from base of plant, erect, divergent, or spreading, to 70 cm. Leaves 3-foliolate, 4–7 usually whorled, sometimes scattered on stem; stipules deciduous and rarely observed, linear, 2–2.5 mm; petiole 4.5–12.5 cm; leaflets usually estipellate, rarely partly stipellate, blades with sparsely pilose veins on both surfaces, sometimes glabrate adaxially; lateral blades oblique, nearly as large as terminal; terminal blade rhombic, elliptic, obovate, or orbiculate, 4.5–12 × 3–8 cm, apex acute or short-acuminate. Inflorescences on peduncle arising from base of plant, branched; rachis white-pilose and uncinate-puberulent; primary bract narrowly ovate to subulate, 5 mm. Pedicels slender, 10–25 mm, glabrous. Flowers: calyx 1.5–2.5 mm, white-puberulent, hairs scattered, long, stiff; corolla usually pink, rarely white, 6–9 mm, keel connate along abaxial margin (enclosing reproductive organs). Loments 1–4-articulate; segments asymmetrically depressed-obtriangular, 7–12 × 4–5 mm; stipe (5–)10–22 mm, glabrous or glabrate.

Phenology: Flowering spring–summer(–fall).
Habitat: Deciduous woodlands and borders, ravines, slopes, dry open woods.
Elevation: 50–150 m.

Ont., Que., Ala., Ark., Conn., Del., D.C., Fla., Ga., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Kans., Ky., La., Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., Miss., Mo., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Okla., Pa., R.I., S.C., Tenn., Tex., Vt., Va., W.Va., Wis.

Discussion

Flower-bearing stems of Hylodesmum nudiflorum are usually leafless; occasionally one leaf will be present or, very rarely, multiple leaves. Rare plants with a whorl of leaves on flower-bearing stems most often occur after the vegetative stem has been extensively damaged; they superficially resemble H. glutinosum but retain the remainder of the vegetative and reproductive differences.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa