Home Flora of Missouri
Home
Name Search
Families
Volumes
Lappula Moench Search in The Plant ListSearch in IPNISearch in Australian Plant Name IndexSearch in Index Nominum Genericorum (ING)Search in NYBG Virtual HerbariumSearch in JSTOR Plant ScienceSearch in SEINetSearch in African Plants Database at Geneva Botanical GardenAfrican Plants, Senckenberg Photo GallerySearch in Flora do Brasil 2020Search in Reflora - Virtual HerbariumSearch in Living Collections Decrease font Increase font Restore font
 

Published In: Methodus Plantas Horti Botanici et Agri Marburgensis, a staminum situ describendi 416–417. 1794. (Methodus) Name publication detailView in BotanicusView in Biodiversity Heritage Library
 

Project Name Data (Last Modified On 8/11/2017)
Acceptance : Accepted
Project Data     (Last Modified On 7/9/2009)
Status: Introduced

 

Export To PDF Export To Word

8. Lappula Moench (stickseed, beggars lice)

Plants annual or rarely biennial, with short taproots. Stems 5–60 cm long, erect or ascending, solitary or few to several, usually moderately branched above the midpoint, moderately to densely pubescent with shorter and longer, fine, spreading to ascending, often minutely pustular-based hairs. Leaves alternate and basal (the lower leaves sometimes withered at flowering), sessile, the blade 1–8 cm long, 3–10 mm wide, linear to narrowly oblong or narrowly oblanceolate, short-tapered to rounded at the base, rounded or angled to short-tapered to a bluntly or sharply pointed tip, the surfaces moderately to densely hairy, without noticeable lateral veins. Inflorescences usually paired, terminal on the branches, sometimes also on short lateral branches and thus appearing axillary, appearing as dense clusters at the start of flowering, then becoming elongated into usually scorpioid, spikelike racemes, these sometimes appearing aggregated into leafy panicles, the flowers usually with stalks 0.5–2.0 mm long, these not elongating noticeably at fruiting, erect to loosely ascending, each flower subtended by a small, lanceolate to linear bract. Calyces 5-lobed nearly to the base, the lobes 1.5–2.5 mm long at flowering, becoming elongated to 2–4 mm at fruiting, linear to oblong-lanceolate, moderately to densely pubescent with stiff, ascending, pustular-based hairs. Corollas small, broadly funnelform to somewhat trumpet-shaped, white or pale blue, the tube about as long as the calyx, the throat with scalelike appendages. Stamens inserted at about the midpoint of the tube, the filaments very short, the anthers oblong, not exserted from the corolla. Ovary deeply 4-lobed, the style very short, not exserted from the corolla, usually persistent but inconspicuous at fruiting, the stigma capitate, unlobed. Fruits dividing into mostly 4 nutlets, these 2–3 mm long, erect, more or less angular-ovoid with a relatively sharp ventral keel, attached to the very narrowly pyramidal gynobase along the ventral keel, the attachment scar slender and elongate, bluntly to sharply pointed at the tip, the dorsal surface with 1 or 2 rows of tapered, apically barbed tubercles, these sometimes expanded and fused into a narrow, irregular ridge at the base, otherwise with minute warts or tubercles, brown. Twelve to 40 species, North America, Europe, Asia; introduced nearly worldwide.

The two species of Lappula in Missouri are very similar in overall morphology. As discussed by Higgins (1979) and Al-Shehbaz (1991), the innate morphological variability of populations has resulted in the segregation of numerous species and infraspecific taxa from both of the species treated below. The presence of many intermediate plants for all of the characters said to delineate these taxa argues against their recognition. The genus is closely related to Hackelia, and the barbed nutlets in both genera facilitate dispersal by hooking into the fur (or trousers) of creatures coming into contact with fruiting plants.

 

Export To PDF Export To Word Export To SDD
Switch to indented key format
1 1. Hairs of stem more or less spreading; hairs of leaves soft; dorsal surface of the nutlets with 1 row of apically barbed tubercles around the margin ... 1. L. REDOWSKII

Lappula redowskii
2 1. Hairs of stem mostly appressed; hairs of leaves rough; dorsal surface of the nutlets with 2(3) rows of apically barbed tubercles around the margin ... 2. L. SQUARROSA Lappula squarrosa
 
 
© 2024 Missouri Botanical Garden - 4344 Shaw Boulevard - Saint Louis, Missouri 63110