3. Valerianella radiata (L.) Dufr.

V. radiata var. fernaldii Dyal

V. radiata var. missouriensis Dyal

V. stenocarpa Krok var. parviflora Dyal

V. woodsiana (Torr. & A. Gray) Walp.

Pl. 572 h, i; Map 2679

Stems 8–40(–60) cm long. Leaf blades 1–10 cm long, the margins of stem leaves often few-toothed near the base. Bracts and bractlets glabrous or with short, nonglandular, bristly hairs along the margin. Corollas 1.5–5.0 mm long, the tube shorter than to about as long as the expanded upper portion (limb and lobes), white, rarely pinkish-tinged. Stamens noticeably exserted from the corolla. Fruits 1.7–2.5 mm long, narrowly oblong-elliptic to more commonly ovate in dorsal view, glabrous, minutely hairy, or sparsely bristly-hairy, the fertile locule usually about as wide as the sterile ones, lacking a corky mass on the back, smooth or at most with a fine nerve or slight ridge, the sterile locules usually more or less parallel, with a shallow or more commonly relatively deep longitudinal groove between them. 2n=64, 90. April–May.

Scattered to common in the southern 2/3 of the state (eastern U.S. west to Kansas and Texas). Upland prairies, glades, savannas, fens, openings and edges of bottomland and mesic upland forests, and banks of streams and rivers; also pastures, fallow fields, roadsides, railroads, and open disturbed areas.

Much as she did in the V. ozarkana complex, Ware (1983; see also Eggers, 1969) suggested that the differences in fruit morphology of taxa in the V. radiata complex were due to minor genetic polymorphisms, and she demoted these variants from species to forms. Plants of f. fernaldii (Dyal) Egg. Ware have the fruits shaped like those of f. radiata in dorsal view, but have the two sterile locules noticeably narrower than the fertile locule and with a shallow longitudinal groove between them. Plants of f. parviflora (Dyal) Egg. Ware have fruits narrowly oblong-elliptic in dorsal view, and 2.5–3.0 times as long as wide, but the sterile locules shaped much like those of f. radiata. Plants of typical V. radiata have the fruits ovate in dorsal view, 1.5–2.5 times as long as wide, with the sterile locules about as wide as the fertile locule, more or less parallel, and with a pronounced groove between them. Ware (1983) noted that the variants occur sporadically within populations of typical V. radiata.

Most authors have treated V. woodsiana as a distinct species, but it differs from V. radiata only in the larger and more divergent sterile locules of the fruits. Eggers (1969) and Ware (1983) accepted it as distinct, but noted that further study might result in its being treated as simply another fruit variant of V. radiata, a position that is tentatively accepted here. Valerianella woodsiana occurs in Texas, Oklahoma, and Kansas, with disjunct localities in Louisiana, Georgia, and South Carolina. Eggers (1969) first reported this taxon for Missouri, based on a single historical specimen from St. Louis that apparently represents an introduced population. She also listed and mapped a potentially native occurrence in Lawrence County, based on a single specimen accessioned at the herbarium of Southwest Missouri State University. However, this appears to represent a recording error, as the same collection was also cited in her dissertation under V. radiata and the actual specimen contains only plants of that species.