Stylisma

Rafinesque

Amer. Monthly Mag. & Crit. Rev. 3: 101. 1818.

Endemic
Etymology: Greek stylos, pillar, and –skhísma, division, alluding to cleft style
Treatment appears in FNA Volume 14.

Perennials. Stems usually procumbent or trailing, rarely twining, glabrous or hairy, hairs 2-armed. Leaves petiolate or sessile; blade linear to oblong-elliptic, 10–80 mm, surfaces glabrous or hairy. Inflorescences 2–7-flowered or flowers solitary. Flowers: sepals ovate-lanceolate to ovate, 4–11 mm; corolla usually white, sometimes lavender, maroon, pink, purple, or red, campanulate or funnelform, 8–25 mm, limb 5-angled or -lobed; styles 2, connate at base or nearly to tips; stigmas peltate. Fruits capsular or nutlike, dry, oblong-ovoid [ellipsoid, fusiform, turbinate], dehiscence valvate. Seeds 1(–4), ovoid [ellipsoid, fusiform, or globose], hairy. x = 14.

Distribution

c, se United States.

Discussion

Species 6 (6 in the flora).

Selected References

None.

Key

1 Leaf blades 10–18 mm; flowers: sepals 4–6 mm, corollas 8–13 mm. Stylisma abdita
1 Leaf blades 20–80 mm; flowers: sepals 4–11 mm, corollas 10–25 mm. > 2
2 Corollas lavender, maroon, pink, purple, or red; stamens: filaments glabrous or glabrate. Stylisma aquatica
2 Corollas white; stamens: filaments usually hairy, at least proximally, rarely glabrous. > 3
3 Leaf blades 10–30 mm wide; inflorescences usually 3–7-flowered, flowers rarely solitary. > 4
4 Sepals glabrous. Stylisma humistrata
4 Sepals densely villous. Stylisma villosa
3 Leaf blades 0.1–8 mm wide; inflorescences: flowers usually solitary, sometimes 2–5-flowered. > 5
5 Leaf blades 0.1–3 mm wide; bracteoles 15–25 mm; style branches usually connate (1/2–)5/6+ length, sometimes less. Stylisma pickeringii
5 Leaf blades 2–8 mm wide; bracteoles 1–3(–5) mm; style branches connate only at base. Stylisma patens