9. Agalinis viridis (Small) Pennell

Gerardia viridis Small

Pl. 470 l, m; Map 2151

Plants relatively slender to broadly bushy, not blackening upon drying, yellowish green, not purplish- or blackish-tinged. Stems 10–60 cm long, erect or ascending, with few to numerous short to elongate, ascending to spreading branches, mostly above the midpoint of the stem, sharply 4-angled, often strongly ridged or narrowly winged above the lower branch points, smooth (glabrous) along and between the angles. Primary leaves lacking fascicles of leaves. Leaf blades ascending, straight, 10–25(–30) mm long, 0.5–2.0(–3.0) mm wide, linear, entire, relatively stiff, the upper surface moderately roughened, the undersurface roughened along the midvein. Inflorescences usually more or less elongate, appearing as racemes at the branch tips, the flower stalks 5–15 mm long at flowering (noticeably longer than the calyces), shorter than to about as long as the subtending bracts, elongating to 8–25 mm at fruiting, more or less straight and loosely to strongly ascending. Calyces 3.0–4.5 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 0.8–2.0 mm long, shorter than the tube, relatively thick and triangular, glabrous on the inner surface and margin, the sinuses between the lobes at flowering broadly U-shaped. Corollas 8–12 mm long, pink to light pink, the tube glabrous or sparsely and inconspicuously short-hairy near the tip externally, the throat with darker, reddish purple spots, usually also with a pair of longitudinal, pale yellow to white 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) glabrous on the outer surface, fringed along the margins, the upper 2 lobes spreading to bent backward at full flowering. Anthers 0.8–1.3 mm long. Fruits 5–7 mm long, obovoid to broadly oblong-obovoid. Seeds 0.7–1.0 mm long, yellow to yellowish brown. August–October.

Uncommon in the southeastern and southwestern portions of the state (Missouri to Mississippi west to Oklahoma and Texas). Bottomland prairies, moist swales in upland prairies, and rarely edges of mesic upland forests; also roadsides.