2. Valerianella ozarkana Dyal (Ozark corn salad)

V. bushii Dyal

Pl. 572 a–c; Map 2678

Stems 6–45 cm long. Leaf blades 1–6 cm long, the margins of stem leaves usually entire. Bracts and bractlets glabrous or with minute, gland-tipped teeth. Corollas 10–12 mm long, the tube 3–4 times as long as the expanded upper portion (limb and lobes), light pink to rose-pink or less commonly lilac. Stamens noticeably exserted from the corolla. Fruits 1.9–4.0 mm long, elliptic-ovate to oblong or narrowly elliptic in dorsal view, glabrous or with dense lines of short bristly hairs along the angles, the fertile locule narrower than to wider than the sterile ones, lacking a corky mass on the back, smooth or with a strongly developed, angled or keeled midrib, the sterile locules parallel, with a shallow or deep longitudinal groove between them. 2n=32. April–May.

Uncommon in the southwestern portion of the Ozark Division and disjunct in Madison County (Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas). Glades and openings of dry upland forests; also roadsides, usually on calcareous substrates.

Steyermark (1963) accepted two taxa in the V. ozarkana complex, but commented that it was highly questionable whether they should be maintained as distinct species as their fruit morphologies were the only distinguishing characters and occurred in mixed populations. Ware (1983; see also Eggers, 1969) performed controlled crosses between plants of V. ozarkana and V. bushii, and determined that the difference in fruit morphologies could be attributed to a single gene difference. She accorded these minor genetic variants the status of forms. Typical V. ozarkana has the fertile and sterile locules expanded and longitudinally compressed, giving the fruits a larger, strongly 3-angled appearance, and has lines of hairs along the angles. In f. bushii (Dyal) Egg. Ware, the locules are not flattened or expanded, giving the fruits a smaller rounded appearance, without lines of hairs.