4. Agalinis gattingeri (Small) Small ex Britton (rough-stemmed gerardia)

Gerardia gattingeri Small

Pl. 470 n, o; Map 2146

Plants usually relatively broadly bushy, not blackening upon drying, green to slightly yellowish green, occasionally somewhat purplish-tinged. Stems 10–60 cm long, erect, with numerous, loosely ascending to spreading branches, mostly above the midpoint, rounded to bluntly 4-angled toward the base, somewhat more strongly angled and sometimes ridged above the lower branch points, slightly to moderately roughened with sparse to moderate, ascending, minute hairs, mostly along the angles, sometimes nearly glabrous. Primary leaves usually lacking fascicles of leaves. Leaf blades mostly spreading or arched to curled outward, 15–35 mm long, 0.5–1.5 mm wide, threadlike to linear, entire, relatively soft, the upper surface slightly roughened, the undersurface glabrous or occasionally slightly roughened along the midvein. Inflorescences relatively short, the flowers often appearing solitary or in small open clusters at the branch tips, the flower stalks 5–25 mm long at flowering (noticeably longer than the calyces), elongating to 10–30 mm at fruiting, slender, more or less straight and ascending to spreading. Calyces 3–5 mm long, broadly bell-shaped to hemispheric, slightly longer than wide to about as long as wide at flowering (becoming distended as the fruits mature), the lobes 0.5–1.5 mm long, much shorter than the tube, relatively thick and triangular, glabrous or sparsely short-hairy on the inner surface and margin, the sinuses between the lobes at flowering broadly U-shaped. Corollas 10–16 mm long, pink to light pink, the tube sparsely to moderately hairy externally, the throat with darker, reddish purple spots, occasionally also with a pair of longitudinal, pale yellow lines, finely pubescent with relatively long, pink to purple, multicellular hairs at the base of the upper lobes, the lobes (especially the 3 lower ones) finely hairy on the outer surface, fringed along the margins, the upper 2 lobes spreading to bent backward at full flowering. Anthers 1.3–2.0 mm long. Fruits 4–5 mm long, globose to subglobose. Seeds 0.5–0.9 mm long, yellow to yellowish brown. 2n=26. August–October.

Scattered nearly throughout the state, more abundantly south of the Missouri River (Ohio to Alabama west to Minnesota and Texas; Canada). Savannas, edges and openings of mesic to dry upland forests, upland prairies, glades, and rarely margins of ponds; also roadsides and open, disturbed areas; often on acidic substrates.

Holmgren (1986) treated A. gattingeri as a synonym of A. skinneriana, but Canne-Hilliker (1987), Canne-Hilliker and Kampny (1991), and Hays (1998) provided convincing anatomical and morphological data to support the continued recognition of two species.