2. Epilobium L. Willow-herb 



Perennial herbs of wet places, often flowering the first year; leaves opposite 

 below, alternate above, denticulate or serrate; stipules absent; flowers actinomorphic, 

 4-merous, borne in the axils of reduced upper leaves; hypanthium well-developed; 

 sepals not persistent in fruit; petals white to pink; stamens 8; stigma subclavate, 

 undivided; fruit an elongate loculicidally dehiscent capsule; seeds numerous, with 

 a coma, strongly papillose or smooth. 



About 215 species of temperate and cold regions, extending into the tropics in 

 the mountains and world-wide. 



We have adapted the ultra-conservative treatment used by C. Leo Hitchcock et al. 

 (1961) wherein several macrospecies accommodate the infinite individual varia- 

 tions found in this genus. For our purpose, their treatment would seem to be most 

 practical. 



1. Stigma 4-cleft; petals usually more than 1 cm. long 1. E. angustifoUum. 



1. Stigma usually entire; petals rarely to 1 cm. long (2) 



2(1). Plant with bulblike offsets (turions) present; seeds commonly papillate.... 

 2. E. glandulosum. 



2. Plants without turions; seeds various (3) 



3(2). Stems seldom over 3 dm. tall, simple or with a few basal branches; rhi- 

 zomes usually well-developed and the plants matted; leaves seldom 

 over 4 cm. long, mostly entire; seeds smooth or the papillae very 

 small and not in distinct rows; coma usually dingy.. ..3. E. alpinum. 



3. Stems usually well over 3 dm. tall and commonly freely branched above the 



middle; rhizomes short or lacking; leaves usually over 4 cm. long, 

 typically denticulate to serrate; seeds often conspicuously crested- 

 papillate in numerous parallel longitudinal lines; coma white or 

 brownish (4) 



4(3). Coma cinnamon-colored; seeds abruptly rounded distally; mature flower 



buds tipped with 4 projecting or divergent points (sepal tips) 



4. E. coloratum. 



4. Coma white or nearly so; seeds narrowed distally to a short beak; flower buds 



usually obtuse or rounded at the summit, rarely somewhat pointed 

 5. E. Watsonii. 



1. Epilobium angustifoUum L. Fireweed, blooming-sally. Fig. 563. 



Perennial from widespread rhizomelike roots that form adventitious buds freely; 

 stems usually simple, to about 3 m. tall, usually much smaller, glabrous except for 

 fine puberulence in the inflorescence and especially on the ovaries; leaves alternate, 

 subsessile, narrowly lanceolate, mostly 8-15 cm. long, subentire; racemes terminal, 

 many-flowered, small bracted, greatly elongate; flowers reflexed in bud. then 

 ascending; hypanthium essentially lacking; sepals 8-12 mm. long, short-clawed; 

 petals 1-2 cm. long, entire, spreading, rose-color to purple or rarely white; style 

 longer than the stamens, pilose on the lower portion; stigma 4-cleft; capsule 5-8 

 cm. long; coma dingy. 



Bogs, edge of water in streams, wettish meadows, margin of woods, in N.M. 

 (Sandoval and Taos cos.) and Ariz. (Apache to Coconino, Greenlee and Graham 

 COS.), May— Sept.; widespread from Alas, to Calif., Ariz, and N. M., eastw. to Atl. 

 Coast; Euras. 



2. Epilobium glandulosum Lehm. 



Perennial from slender to filiform rhizomes ending in globose turions, the scales 

 of previous offsets usually persistent through the season; stems simple to branched 

 at the base or above, erect, to about 9 dm. tall, glabrous to pilose, often crisp- 

 puberulent in lines, frequently glandular-puberulent in the inflorescence; leaves 

 opposite, from sessile and often somewhat clasping to petiolate with slender to 



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