1. Sabatia Adans. Rose-gentian 



Erect glabrous annual or perennial herbs, with slender leafy stems and mostly 

 cymose panicled flowers; leaves mostly cauline but also basal in some species; 

 flowers perfect, regular, long-pedicelled or subsessile; calyx gamosepalous, 5- to 

 12-parted, the lobes slender; corolla 5- to 12-parted, rotate; stamens 5 to 12; 

 filaments slender, inserted on upper edge of corolla tube and alternate with the 

 lobes; anthers basally attached, soon recurved; style slender; stigmatic branches 2; 

 capsule ovoid to cylindric. with numerous seeds. 



A genus of 17 species native to continental North America and the West Indies. 

 The name has often been misspelled "Sabbatia." 



1. Flowers 7- to 12-merous (2) 



1. Flowers 5- or rarely 6-merous (3) 



2(1). Flowers several approximate, sessile or nearly so, subtended by foliaceous 

 bracts; annual 1. S. gentianoides. 



2. Flowers solitary on long peduncles, without bracts; perennial. .2. S. dodecandra. 



3(1). Calyx tube very prominently 5-nerved and thinly membranous-winged; 

 lateral nerves of the calyx lobes much more strongly developed than 

 the midnerve; flowers 5-merous; annual (4) 



3. Calyx tube smooth or finely nerved and lacking membranous wings; midnerve 



of the calyx lobes almost equaling or even more strongly developed 

 than the lateral nerves; flowers either 5- or rarely 6-merous; annual 

 or perennial (5) 



4(3). Leaves and calycine lobes thin and membranous, neither succulent nor 

 heavily cutinized; leaves broadest near the base, usually strongly 

 clasping the stem, the midvein at least prominently elevated beneath; 

 calyx lobes usually 2 to 6 times longer than the calyx tube, generally 

 4 to 8 times longer than broad; corolla lobes typically equaling or 

 exceeding the calyx lobes, usually longer than 1 cm. and wider than 

 7 mm.; stigmatic lobes over 5 mm. long; anthers longer than 2 mm... 

 4. S. campestris. 



4. Leaves and calycine lobes thick and succulent, heavily cutinized; leaves broad- 



est above the base, tapering somewhat to the sessile non-clasping 

 base, the venation obscure and flush with the surface; calyx lobes 

 usually less than twice the length of the calyx tube, generally less 

 than 4 times as long as broad; corolla lobes usually equaled or 

 exceeded by the calyx lobes, the corolla lobes usually less than 1 cm. 

 long and narrower than 7 mm.; stigmatic lobes less than 5 mm. 

 long; anthers shorter than 2 mm 5. S. arenicola. 



5(3). Perennial with elongate rhizomes, sometimes stoloniferous; leaves oblong to 



narrowly obovate; calyx lobes broadened above the middle 



6. S. calycina. 



5. Annual without rhizomes or stolons; leaves suborbicular to cordate-ovate; calyx 



lobes narrowed above the middle 3. S. angularis. 



1. Sabatia gentianoides Ell. Fig. 624. 



Erect strict annual to 5 dm. tall; stem usually unbranched or only slightly 

 branched above the middle; leaves dimorphic, thick, the venation obscure, those of 

 the basal rosette wide-spreading and oblong tp orbicular-spatulate, to 3 cm. long 

 and 12 mm. wide; cauline leaves linear, strongly ascending or sometimes appressed 

 to the stem, to 1 dm. long and less than 3 mm. wide; flowers subsessile, 7- to 

 12-merous, borne singly or in clusters of several at apex of main stem or in axils of 

 uppermost leaves, subtended by 2 conspicuously long linear bracts; calyx tube 

 broadly campanulate, smooth and nerveless, to 8 mm. long, the subulate recurved 



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