Herbs, annual or occasionally biennial, from basal rosette. Stems single (slender and wiry), with long basal branches, 2–10 dm, tuberculate-hispid. Rosette leaves: petiole short and broad-winged or leaves sessile; blade spatulate, obovate, or oblance­olate, 5–30 cm, surfaces hispid. Cauline leaves sessile; proximal blades rounded to ovate, distal blades lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, 1–5 cm, base clasping, apex acuminate and often twisted, surfaces hispid. Inflorescences simple or few-forked to more rarely many times branched, few-flowered, not leafy; flowering crepuscular. Pedicels 0.3–0.7 cm. Flowers: calyx green or purplish green, elliptic to ovate, 10-ribbed, 0.8–1.3 cm, sinus membranes long, minutely hispid, lobes linear-subulate, equal, length ± equaling tube, tips somewhat spreading; corolla straight, 2.5–3.5 cm (excluding limb), puberulent, tube and throat not clearly differentiated, white or greenish-gray tinged, 2.5–3.5 cm, gradually widening from 1 mm to 2 mm diam., abruptly swollen to 4 mm diam., just below contracted mouth, glabrous or minutely puberulent internally, limb spreading or slightly reflexed, cream or white, stellate, 1 cm diam., lobes white adaxially, ivory or greenish purple or with purplish veins abaxially, ovate-acute; stamens inserted just below mouth (4 inserted 0.4 cm below mouth, one 0.4 cm lower), included; filaments free for at least some of their length (anthers not sessile), 4 nearly shorter than 0.1 mm and sometimes unequal, one 1 mm, glabrous; anthers to 0.1 mm; style straight, equaling or just exceeding stamens. Capsules narrowly ovoid, 0.8–1.1 cm. Fruiting calyces not tearing at sinuses, just covering capsule. Seeds 0.5 mm. 2n = 24.

Phenology: Flowering May–Jan.
Habitat: Moist ground, semishade, wide­spread in disturbed habitats.
Elevation: 0–2000 m.

Distribution

• Generated Map
• Legacy Map

Fla., La., Tex., Mexico, Central America, South America, introduced in s Asia (India, Taiwan).

Discussion

Selected References

None.

Lower Taxa

None.