Parietaria hespera var. hespera

Herbs , 0.3-5.5 dm. Leaf blades narrowly to broadly ovate, less frequently oblong or nearly orbiculate, 0.4-4.5 × 0.4-2.7 cm, conspicuously longer than wide, base broadly cuneate, rounded, or truncate, apex distally rounded or acuminate to acute or obtuse. Flowers: involucral bracts 1-4.5 mm; tepals erect, loosely connivent at maturity, ca.2-2.8 mm, apex acute.

Flowering late winter-early summer, rarely at other times. Chaparral, deserts, roadsides, sand dunes, often in shaded and moist places; 0-1400 m; Ariz., Calif., Nev., N.Mex., Utah; nw Mexico.

PLANT: Prostrate, decumbent, ascending, or erect, simple or freely branched, sometimes densely matted, annuals 3 55 cm tall. LEAVES: narrowly to very broadly ovate, oblong or circular, 0.4 4.5 cm long, 0.4 2.7 cm wide, about as wide as long to longer than wide; apex attenuate, acute, obtuse or rounded; base broadly cuneate, rounded or truncate. LEAF BASE: broadly cuneate, rounded or truncate. FLOWERS: subtended by bracts ca. 1-4.5 mm long; tepals acute, loosely connivent at maturity; bracts shorter than or exceeding the tepals. TEPALS: acute, loosely connivent at maturity, ca. 2 2.8 mm long, obtuse. ACHENES: symmetrical, 0.9 1.2 mm long, 0.6 0.7 mm broad. NOTES: Deserts, dry woodlands, roadsides, sand dunes, rock crevices, often in shaded and moist places: all cos. except Apache, Greenlee, Navajo; below ca. 1600 m (5300 ft); late winter early summer, rarely at other times of year; s half of CA, sw NM, se NV and sw UT; also in nw Mex. Parietaria floridana Nutt., the name for a superficially similar species from the e and se coastal U.S. with smaller, stipitate achenes, has been applied incorrectly to this species. REFERENCES: Boufford, David E. 1992. Urticaceae. Ariz.-Nev. Acad. Sci. 26(1)2.