Fam. 103. Plumbaginaceae Juss. Plumbago Family 



Perennial herbs or shrubs, with basal or alternate entire leaves and perfect 

 and regular flowers; calyx inferior, 4- or 5-toothed, sometimes plaited at the 

 sinuses, the tube 5- to 15-ribbed; corolla of 4 or 5 hypogynous clawed segments 

 connate at the base or united into a tube; stamens 4 or 5, opposite the corolla 

 segments, hypogynous; anthers 2-celled, dorsally attached to the filaments, the 

 sacs longitudinal dehiscent; disk none; ovary superior, 1 -celled; ovule solitary, 

 anatropous. pendulous; styles 5; fruit a utricle, achene or capsule, enclosed by the 

 calyx; seed solitary. 



About 10 genera and 500 species of wide distribution, many in saline or semi- 

 arid situations. 



1. Limonium Mill. Sea-lavender. Marsh-rosemary 



Perennials with woody roots and petioled radical thick leaves, the nearly 

 naked erect flowering stems or scapes branched into panicles; flowers solitary 

 or 2 or 3 together in several-bracted spikelets that are approximate or scattered 

 on 1 -sided branches; calyx funnelform, dry and membranous, persistent; corolla 

 of 5 nearly or quite distinct petals, with long claws, the 5 stamens attached to 

 their bases; styles 5 or rarely 3, separate; fruit membranous and indehiscent, 

 scarcely exserted from the calyx. 



About 300 species that are widely distributed. This genus, in North America, 

 is sorely in need of a modern revision. 



1. Calyx 4 mm. long or less, the short broadly triangular-ovate lobes spreading 

 at maturity; plants of alkaline flats in Trans-Pecos Texas, westward 

 1. L. limbatum. 



1. Calyx 5 mm. long or more, the narrowly ovate-lanceolate lobes erect at 



maturity; plants of beach and dune areas along the Gulf Coast (2) 



2(1). Spikelets 1- to 3-flowered, mostly 3 mm. or less apart; calyx usually 



prominently pubescent on ribs below middle, rarely glabrous 



2. L. Nashii var. Nashii. 



2. Spikelets nearly all 1 -flowered, mostly 4 mm. or more apart at maturity; calyx 



glabrous or sparsely short-pubescent near base 



2. L. Nashii var. angustatum. 



1. Limonium limbatum Small. Fig. 615. 



Plant to 6 dm. high, bluish-green or glaucescent; leaves with petioles to 15 cm. 

 long, obovate to elliptic, rounded or retuse at the barely mucronulate apex, 

 narrowed into the petiole, thick, leathery, venose, to 16 cm. long and 65 mm. 

 wide; scape stout, much-branched from below the middle; panicle large, to 3 dm. 

 wide or more, the branches divergent-ascending, the 2-flowered spikelets densely 

 and distichously aggregated into 1-1.4 cm. long spikes on the ultimate branchlets 

 or somewhat elongated in var. glabrescens; outermost bractlet ovate-orbicular to 

 orbicular, acute to acutish, mucronate or apiculate, hyaline-margined, 1-1.4 mm. 

 long; middle bractlet oblong-oval, retuse at apex, hyaline with green midrib, 3 mm. 

 long; innermost bractlet very firm, elliptic, rounded to retuse at apex, hyaline- 

 margined. 3-3.5 mm. long; calyx trumpet-shaped, with wide-spreading limb, about 

 4 mm. long, with 2 or 3 of the ribs pubescent to the middle and the other ribs 

 generally pubescent only at the extreme base or not at all, the ribs glabrous or 

 nearly so in var. glabrescens; calyx lobes deltoid-ovate, obtuse to acute, about 

 0.7 mm. long: intermediate teeth depressed-deltoid, about 0.2 mm. long or obsoles- 

 cent; corolla bright-blue. 



In wet meadows, saline flats and in depressions in the Texas Trans-Pecos, 

 reported from the Panhandle, N.M. (Guadalupe and Valencia cos.) and Ariz. 

 (Graham Co.), June-Aug. 



1295 



