Biorepository Data Portal

Herbs, perennial, erect. Roots sparsely pubescent to glabrescent. Stems 20--55 cm. Leaves often laxly spreading; basal leaf sheaths ± glabrous, margins ciliate; blade linear, 8--35 ´ 0.4--1.5 cm (distal leaf blades as wide as sheaths when sheaths opened, flattened). Inflorescences: bracts usually minute, 1--3(--5) mm, scarious. Flowers pedicellate; pedicels 0.5--1.2 cm; petals pink to rose, 7--12 mm; stamens 6; filaments bearded. Capsules 3-locular, 2--4 mm. Seeds 1.5--2 mm. 2n = 12. Flowering spring--early summer. Deciduous or pine-oak woods, sandy or shallow, rocky soils, occasionally in grassland, swamp forest, or along railroads and roadsides; Fla., Ga., N.C., S.C. The evidence that this and the following two taxa are species, instead of varieties or subspecies, is hardly compelling. It is a matter of the author's preference. The work of N. H. Giles Jr. (1942) clearly demonstrated cytological diversity within Callisia graminea, but the remaining taxa have never been investigated in the same detail. The taxa appear to hybridize when they come in contact.

Glabrous or nearly so; stems cespitose, very slender, usually branched, 1-4 dm; lvs erect, narrowly linear, 1-5 mm wide, equaling or exceeding the stems; bracts scarious or green, linear, rarely 1 cm; pedicels 10-15 mm; sep 5 mm; pet bright pink, 1 cm; capsule subglobose, 4 mm thick; 2n=12, 24, 36. Sandy soil; se. Va. to Fla. Our plants are the well marked var. graminea (Small) E. S. Anderson & Woodson. (Callisia r.; Cuthbertia r.)

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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