Leavenworthia torulosa

Stems (when present) 1-2.5 dm. Basal leaves: petiole (1-)1.5-3.5 cm; blade (2-)2.7-7.5(-9) cm, lobes (0 or) 1-6 on each side, margins usually entire or shallowly dentate, rarely lobed, terminal lobe orbicular to broadly ovate, 0.5-1.1 cm × 5-12 mm, considerably larger than lateral lobes, margins entire or shallowly dentate. Fruiting pedicels: solitary flowers 30-80(-100) mm; racemes to 60 mm. Flowers: sepals suberect to spreading, narrowly oblong, 3-5.2 × 0.8-1.7 mm; petals spreading, white to lavender or, rarely, yellow, broadly spatulate, (5-)7-10 × (1.5-)2.5-4.5(-6) mm, claw yellow, (1.2-) 2-3 mm, apex emarginate, apical notch 0.3-1.1 mm deep; filaments: median 3.5-4.7 mm, lateral 1.2-2.5 mm; anthers 0.7-1.4 mm. Fruits linear, (1.5-)2-3 cm × 2-4 mm, markedly torulose to submoniliform, latiseptate; valves somewhat thick; ovules 8-16(-18) per ovary; style 2.5-5 mm. Seeds 1.9-2.8 mm diam.; wing obsolete or to 0.1 mm wide; embryo slightly bent. 2n = 30.

Flowering Mar-Apr. Cedar glades, pastures, seepy areas, thin soil over limestone beds, roadsides, old fields; 150-300 m; Ala., Ky., Tenn.

Leavenworthia torulosa is known in Alabama only from Madison County and in Kentucky only from Warren County.

Much like no. 1 [Leavenworthia exigua Rollins] in aspect; sep pale lavender to pale greenish; fls white to lavender, often with a yellow eye, the pet 6-10 mm, emarginate; frs linear, strongly torulose even when young, 1.5-3 cm נ2.5-4 mm, nearly as thick as wide, the persistent style 2.5-5 mm; seeds nearly wingless, longer than wide, 2.5-3.5 mm, the areolae of the reticulum nearly uniform throughout; radicle slightly bent; 2n=30. S. Ky. to s. Tenn.

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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