lightly against the stem, and the leaf edges 

 barely join at the base. The leaves are ^-AVt in. 

 long, with 1-5 pairs of leaflets, although these 

 are often greatly reduced, lacking, or lying along 

 the leaf stalk. The leaflets are linear, rolled 

 or rarely flattened, up to Vs in. wide, and <V&-1 

 in. long. The flowering stalk is erect or 

 spreading, and l-S^^ in. long, lengthening to 7 in. 

 in fruit. The 1-25 flowers are scattered along 

 the stalk. Individual flower stalks are slender, 

 arched outward, up to Vn in. long in flower, and up 

 to % in. in fruit. The calyx is Vs-^ in. long, and 

 covered with black or white hairs. It has more or 

 less triangular teeth less than Vs in. long, and 

 becomes papery in fruit. The petals are yellowish- 

 white, or tinged with dull purple, and even 

 sometimes bright rose-purple. The petals are 

 usually not much different in length, and are 

 about ^2-% in. long. The pod hangs down, and is 

 directly attached to the stem or sometimes appears 

 to be on a very short stalk. The pod is linear in 

 shape, flattened, %-2 in. long, and about Vs in. in 

 diameter. The pod splits into two halves from 

 the top down, and the two halves coil outward. The 

 seeds are brown or olive-green, sometimes with 

 purple speckles. The seeds are smooth and shiny, 

 or rough and either dull or shiny. They are about 

 Va in. long (adapted from Barneby 1964 and 

 Hitchcock and Cronquist 1961) . 



TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION: Slender, wiry, minutely 

 strigulose, sparsely leafy or almost leafless and 

 rushlike perennial, with a taproot and 

 subterranean root-crown, the stems and herbage 

 with a whitish to grayish or greenish-grayish 

 pubescence, the leaflets sometimes glabrous above; 

 stems usually few, (1-) 4-6 (-37) , usually erect or 

 ascending, (l-)2-5(-7) dm long, subterranean for 

 about 1-7 cm, thereafter bearing branches or 

 spurs, the branches sometimes again branched, the 

 whole becoming flexuous or zigzag distally, 

 striate throughout; stipules ± dimorphic, those 

 below papery-scar ious, pallid or purplish-brown, 

 often several-nerved, (l-)2-7 mm long, amplexicaul 

 and connate, those above nearly always smaller, 

 herbaceous, ovate, triangular, or deltoid, 

 commonly only semiamplexicaul, rarely briefly 

 united at base; leaves 2-11 cm long, the leaflets 

 present, greatly reduced, wanting, or decurrent on 

 the rachis, when present 1-5 pairs, linear, 

 linear-filiform, or elliptic, commonly involute or 

 rarely expanded and up to 3 mm wide, 2-25 (-33) mm 



15 



