1. Anoda cristata (L.) Schltdl. (spurred anoda)

Pl. 450 a, b; Map 2044

Plants annual. Stems 25–100 cm long, loosely ascending to erect, usually branched, sparsely pubescent with mostly simple, spreading to downward-pointing pustular-based hairs. Leaves long-petiolate, very variable, the blades 1.5–8.5 cm long, narrowly triangular-hastate to broadly ovate, sometimes with 1 or 2 pairs of palmate lobes, the margins otherwise entire to irregularly and shallowly toothed or scalloped, the surfaces sparsely to moderately pubescent with mostly simple appressed hairs, the upper surface sometimes with a purple area along the midrib. Stipules persistent, 6–10 mm long, linear. Flowers solitary in the leaf axils, the bractlets subtending the calyx absent. Calyces 5–10 mm long at flowering, expanding to 20 mm long at fruiting, becoming saucer-shaped with the lobes flattened and spreading horizontally, the sepals fused to about the middle, the fused portion whitened, strongly reticulate-veined at maturity, and sometimes with purple spots, the lobes narrowly lanceolate-triangular at flowering, becoming broadly triangular at fruiting, the outer surface pubescent with simple spreading pustular-based hairs. Petals 8–12(–20) mm long, the tips truncate or more commonly shallowly notched, the margin otherwise entire or somewhat irregular, light bluish purple, rarely white, often drying blue. Stamens numerous, the staminal column circular in cross-section, without a low crown of teeth at the tip, the anthers white or light bluish purple. Pistils with 8–18 locules, the carpels arranged in a loose, strongly flattened ring. Styles fused most of their length, each branch with a globose terminal stigma. Fruits schizocarps breaking into 8–18 mericarps. Mericarps 2–4 mm long, wedge-shaped, pubescent with spreading pustular-based simple hairs, the dorsal surface green, lacking a longitudinal groove, with a prominent horizontally spreading beak, oblong to kidney-shaped in profile, the lateral walls thin, whitened, smooth to slightly roughened, shattering irregularly at maturity, 1-seeded. Seeds 3–4 mm long, oblong-rectangular to kidney-shaped, the surfaces minutely pebbled or warty, black or dark brown. 2n=30, 60, 90. June–September.

Introduced, uncommon and widely scattered in Missouri (southwestern U.S. east to Texas; Mexico, Central America, South America, Caribbean Islands; introduced in the U.S. east to Pennsylvania and also in the Old World). Roadsides, railroads, ditches, margins of crop fields, and open disturbed areas.

Steyermark (1963) reported this species from a single specimen from McDonald County. It appears to have become more common and widely dispersed in recent years.