284 MISC. PUBLICATION 42 3, IT. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 

 7. GOMPHRENA. Globe-amaranth 



Plants herbaceous; stems leafy or scapose ; flowers perfect, in globose 

 or ovoid heads, conspicuously subtended by white, pink, or yellowish 

 scarious bracts and brae tie ts ; perianth 5-lobed or 5-parted. 



The plants, which grow on dry plains and slopes, usually with 

 grasses, are eaten freely by cattle and probably other livestock. 



Key to the species 



1. Bractlets crested along the keel with a laciniate-dentate crest, thin but firm, 

 yellowish white or pink; stems leafy; leaf blades elliptic, ovate, or obovate; 

 spikes usually solitary, commonly subtended by 2 or more leaves. 



1. G. NITIDA. 

 1. Bractlets not crested (2). 



2. Plant annual or perennial, not cespitose; stems leafy, 15 to 60 cm. long; leaf 

 blades commonly narrow, elliptic, lanceolate, or oblanceolate; spikes 

 subtended by 2 or more leaves, usually clustered; bractlets thin but firm 

 (scarious), strongly carinate, entire, cream-colored, pale orange, or pink. 



2. G. SONORAE. 

 2. Plant perennial with a deep woody root, cespitose; stems scapelike, leafy 

 only near the base, not more than 15 cm. long; leaf blades oblanceolate, 

 obovate, or nearly orbicular; spikes not subtended by leaves, usually 

 solitary; bractlets very thin and soft (hyaline) , not strongly carinate, 

 often denticulate at apex, white 3. G. caespitosa. 



1. Gomphrena nitida Kothr. in Wheeler, U. S. Survey West 100th 



Mer. Rpt. 6: 233. 1878. 

 Cochise and Santa Cruz Counties, 4,000 to 6,000 feet, August to 

 September, type from the Chiricahua Mountains. Western Texas to 

 southeastern Arizona and northern Mexico. 



2. Gomphrena sonorae Torr., U. S. and Mex. Bound. Bot. 181. 1859. 

 Gila County to Cochise, Santa Cruz, and Pima Counties, 3,000 to 



5,000 feet, August to September. Arizona and northern Mexico. 



3. Gomphrena caespitosa Torr., U. S. and Mex. Bound. Bot. 181. 



1859. 



Coconino County to Cochise, Santa Cruz, and Pima Counties, 

 3,500 to 5,000 feet, April to August. New Mexico, Arizona, and 

 northern Mexico. 



Sometimes known as ballclover. G. viridis Woot. and Standi, 

 appears to be merely a greener, less pubescent form. 



8. IRESINE. Bloodleaf 



Plant perennial, herbaceous; stem tall, erect, leafy; leaves opposite, 

 petioled, with thin, broad blades ; flowers small, white, in loose terminal 

 panicles of spikes; calyx 5-parted; utricle indehiscent. 



1. Iresine heterophylla Standi, Contrib. U. S. Natl. Herbarium 18: 

 95. 1916. 

 Pinal, Cochise, Santa Cruz, and Pima Counties, 3,500 to 4,500 feet, 

 usually among trees and bushes, late summer. Western Texas and 

 southern Arizona to central Mexico. 



36. NYCTAGINACEAE. Four-o'clock family 



Plants annual or perennial, herbaceous or suffrutescent ; flowers 

 perfect, subtended by separate bracts or these united in a calyxlike 

 involucre ; perianth usually corollalike, with a campanulate, funnelform, 



