Modiola

Herbs, perennial, usually glabrate. Stems procumbent, not viscid, sometimes with few simple hairs on herbage. Leaves: stipules persistent, ovate; blade orbiculate, usually palmately 5–7- ribbed, narrowly triangular; corolla wide-campanulate, salmon-orange, often with darker center, drying brick red; staminal column included; ovary 16–22-carpellate; ovules 1 per cell; style 16–22-branched; stigmas capitate. Fruits schizocarps, erect, not inflated, flattened disc indented in center, not indurate, setose; mericarps 16–22, 2-celled, dorsally setose, laterally glabrous, with 2 apical spurs/spines, chamber divided by endoglossum or partial septum, lower cell strongly rugose, indehiscent, upper cell smoother, dehiscent. Seeds 1 per cell, rounded, with proximal notch, sparsely, minutely hairy. x = 9.

Distribution

Mexico, West Indies, Central America, South America (to n Argentina), Europe.

Discussion

Species 1.

Modiola is undoubtedly adventive over much of its range and possibly native only in northern Argentina and the Paraná basin of South America.

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

Modiola caroliniana