1. Penthorum sedoides L. Figs. 483 and 484. 



Upright or somewhat bushy-sprawling weedlike perennial herb, stoloniferous; 

 stem decumbent at base, simple to widely branched, to about 8 dm. tall; leaves 

 alternate, scattered, elliptic to broadly lanceolate, serrate, acute to acuminate 

 at apex, narrowly cuneate at base, to 15 cm. long and 4 cm. wide; flowers 

 yellowish-green, loosely spiked along the upper side of the naked scorpioid 

 branches of the cyme; calyx lobes 5 to 7; petals usually absent; stamens 10; 

 pistils 5 or 7, united below and slightly sunken in the receptacle, forming a 

 5-angled 5-horned and 5-celled capsule that opens by dehiscence of the caplike 

 beaks, with numerous ellipsoid echinate seeds. 



Wet ground, usually along and on edge of water in streams throughout Okla. 

 and in e. and s.e. Tex. and in the Panhandle (Hemphill Co.), June-July; from 

 Fla. to Tex., n. to s. N.B., N.E., s.w. Que., s. Ont., Mich., Wise, Minn, and Neb. 



3. Saxifraga L. Saxifrage 



Mostly perennial herbs; stems leafy or scapelike, erect to decumbent or pros- 

 trate; leaves simple, mostly in a basal cluster; flowers perfect, regular, soli- 

 tary or in simple or compound cymes; calyx adnate to at least the base of the 

 ovary, the lobes 5; petals 5, perigynous; stamens 10, inserted with petals; carpels 



2, united below or nearly distinct; ovary nearly free or more or less inferior; 

 follicles 2-beaked, divergent, many-seeded. 



About 370 species, mostly in the North Temperate Zone. 



1. Distribution in eastern Oklahoma and Texas 1. S. texana. 



1. Distribution in mountains of New Mexico and Arizona (2) 



2(1). Plants usually less than 1 dm. tall, more or less tufted; flower stem leafy, 

 supporting 1 to 3 flowers (3) 



2. Plants 1 dm. tall or more, not tufted; scape supporting a many-flowered 



inflorescence (4) 



3(2). Basal leaves linear-oblanceolate to spatulate, entire 2. S. chrysantha. 



3. Basal leaves somewhat reniform, 3- to 7-lobed 3. S. debilis. 



4(2). Leaves orbicular to reniform, coarsely and deeply crenate-dentate; flowers 

 in paniculate cymes 4. S. arguta. 



4. Leaves rhombic-ovate to ovate, shallowly crenate-dentate; inflorescence capi- 



tate to interrupted-thyrsiform 5. 5. rhomboidea. 



1. Saxifraga texana Buckl. 



Perennial herb from a bulbous base, to 15 cm. tall; leaves simple, in a basal 

 rosette, spreading, broadly ovate to ovate-oblong, obtuse at apex, abruptly nar- 

 rowed into a petiolate base, to 4 cm. long, usually much smaller, with undulate 

 margins, essentially glabrous; scapes erect, usually solitary, green or rose-colored, 

 coarsely white-pubescent (especially below the middle); cymules aggregated into 

 tight heads; sepals ovate to oblong, obtuse, 1.5-2 mm. long, commonly rose-colored; 

 petals white, broadly elliptic to obovate, 2.5-3 mm. long, narrowed at base; stamens 

 10; folliclelike carpel tips 3 or 4„ about 3 mm. long, the stout tips ascending or 

 somewhat spreading, S. Reevesii Cory, Micranthes texana (Buckl.) Small. 



In seepage on rock outcrops in fields and on edge of woods in e. Okla. and e. 

 Tex., uncommon, Feb.-Mar.; in Mo., Kan., Ark., Okla. and Tex. 



2. Saxifraga chrysantha Gray. 



Perennial with slender rootstocks and few to numerous leafy off'sets, glabrous 

 to sparsely glandular-pubescent; leafy flowering stem simple, 2-6 cm. tall; rosulate 

 leaves linear-oblanceolate to spatulate, glabrous, fleshy, 5-10 mm. long; cauline 



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