Zornia gemella

Kearney and Peebles 1969, Mohlenbrock 1961

Duration: Perennial Nativity: Native Lifeform: Forb/Herb General: Herbaceous annuals to perennials, stems erect, to 50 cm tall, branching, herbage glabrous to pilose. Leaves: Alternate, with 2 leaflets, (bifoliate), leaflets lanceolate or lance-ovate to linear-lanceolate, to 25 mm long and 4 mm wide, acute at the tips, surfaces punctate, glabrous to pilose, 1-nerved, stipules sagittate, surfaces glabrous to puberulent, 5-7-nerved, petioles one-third to half as long as the leaflets. Flowers: Orange-yellow, with banner, wing, and keel petals (papilionaceous), banner suborbicular, to 12 mm long, keel petal incurved, calyx tube with 5 unequal lobes, to 3 mm long, partially strigose, 7-nerved, stamens monadelphous, subtending bracts bracts very different from the foliage leaves, paired, connivent, nearly enclosing the flower, oblong-lanceolate to broadly lanceolate, to 7 mm long and 5 mm wide, tips acute to acuminate, inflorescences crowded near the tips, becoming much-interrupted below, occurring in axillary or terminal spikes or solitary in leaf axils. Fruits: Loment, flat, straight, thick-walled, several-jointed, with 5-7 long-exserted sections, each section 1.5-2 mm long and wide, surfaces not reticulate or the reticulations very faint, pilose with numerous retrorsely hairy bristles, eglandular. The fruits ar Ecology: Unknown Distribution: So far, this species is reported for Texas only according to USDA Plants, but Kearney and Peebles report the parent species occurring in Arizona, Mexico, and South America. Notes: The parent species are in Kearney and Peebles as Z. diphylla, but the proper varieties are not included. See also Z. diphylla var. vulgaris. This species is characterized by its straight loments and lanceolate to lance-ovate or linear-lanceolate leaves. Ecology data may be taken from Z. diphylla, (see Z. leptophylla or Z. diphylla var. leptophylla in this text), but specific ecology data is unknown. Look to the long-exserted sections of the loments, these with non-reticulate or faintly reticulate surfaces and the interrupted inflorescences to help identify this species. Ethnobotany: There is no use recorded for this species, but other species in the genus Hedysarum (a synonym) have uses. Etymology: Unknown Synonyms: Hedysarum gemellum, Zornia diphylla var. vulgaris Editor: LCrumbacher 2012