1. Dicliptera brachiata (Pursh) Spreng.
Pl. 195 d–g; Map
798
Plants annual.
Stems 30–80 cm long, erect or ascending, with usually many branches, glabrous
or hairy. Petioles 1–7 cm long. Leaf blades (2–)5–12 cm long, elliptic to
ovate, rarely lanceolate, usually tapered at the tip and base, the margins
entire or nearly so, hairy, the surfaces sparsely hairy. Inflorescences
few-flowered axillary clusters toward the branch tips, subtended by reduced
leaves, sometimes appearing as short spikes, the inflorescence stalk usually
absent or nearly so, much shorter than the petiole of the subtending leaf.
Flowers subtended by bracts 6–10 mm long, these longer than the calyx, oblong
to obovate. Calyces 4–6 mm long, deeply lobed, the lobes 2–4 mm long, narrowly
lanceolate, long-tapered at the tip, glabrous or hairy along the margins.
Corollas 11–15 mm long, the tube 4–6 mm long, strongly 2-lipped, the lips
usually with 1 or 2 shallow notches at the tip, hairy on the outer surface, at
least when young, pink (drying purple) or less commonly white, the lower lip
often with purple spots. Stamens 2, the anther sacs spreading. Staminodes 2,
linear, inconspicuous, and hidden in the corolla tube. Fruits 4–6 mm long,
elliptic to broadly ovate, flattened, the valves spreading after dehiscence.
Seeds 2 or 4, 2.0–2.5 mm long, broadly ovate to circular in outline, flattened,
the surface with numerous small spines, reddish brown to black. 2n=80.
August–October.
Scattered in the
southern half of the state, mostly in the Ozark and Unglaciated Plains
Divisions (southeastern U.S. west to Kansas and Texas). Bottomland forests and
banks of streams and rivers; occasionally moist depressions of roadsides.