Iresine rhizomatosa

Herbs, perennial, 3-10 dm, stoloniferous. Stems erect, largely simple proximal to inflorescences, villous or glabrous. Leaves op-posite; blade ovate to elliptic, 6-15 × 2-7 cm, apex acute to long acuminate, sparsely pubescent. Inflorescences: panicles 7-30 cm; bracts and bracteoles of staminate and pistillate flowers shorter than tepals. Flowers: tepals white, ovate, 1-1.3 mm, hyaline, apex acute to acuminate, densely lanate. Utricles exerted from tepals, greenish white, ovoid, 1.1-1.5 mm, apex rounded. Seeds 0.5-0.8 mm.

Flowering fall. Sandy alluvial soils of low woods, depressions, sand dunes, along rivers, sandy bluffs; 0-200 m; Ala., Ark., Fla., Ga., Ill., Ind., Kans., Ky., La., Md., Miss., Mo., N.C., Okla., S.C., Tenn., Tex., Va.

Iresine rhizomatosa has occasionally been called I. celsioides Linnaeus, a misapplication of that name.

Dioecious, rhizomatous perennial 5-15 dm, pilose at the nodes; lvs thin, bright green, lance-ovate, acuminate, entire, to 14 cm, a third to half as wide; panicles terminal and from the upper axils, pyramidal, 1-3 dm, with innumerable tiny fls; bracts and bracteoles ovate, shorter than the cal; sep lance-ovate, 1.2-1.5 mm, those of the pistillate fls subtended by long (eventually 3-5 mm) hairs; fr rotund, 2-2.5 mm. Damp woods; Md. to Va. and Ala., w. to Kans. and Tex. Aug.-Oct. (I. paniculata, misapplied)

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

©The New York Botanical Garden. All rights reserved. Used by permission.

From Flora of Indiana (1940) by Charles C. Deam

Very local in a few low woods and dried-up sloughs in the Lower Wabash Valley. Reported also from Clark, Floyd, and Jefferson Counties.

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Indiana Coefficient of Conservatism: C = 10

Wetland Indicator Status: FACW

Diagnostic Traits: leaves opposite, ovate; inflorescences paniculate; sepals (and bracts) silvery-white, 5.