Images
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Morphology
- Stem
- Ascending to erect, branched. Plants pubescent to strigose.
- Leaves
- Alternate, sessile; blade linear to linear-oblanceolate or elliptic, 4/5 to 3 inches long, 1/12 to 1/5 inch wide, margins entire.
- Inflorescence
- Scorpioid racemes, terminal.
- Flower
- Sepals connate at base, calyx 1/12 to 1/8 inch, lobes 5, narrowly elliptic to linear; corolla white to light blue, funnelform, 1/8 to 1/7 inch, fornices present, 5-lobed, lobes spreading, apex rounded; stamens 5, included; ovary 4-locular, deeply 4-lobed; style borne on gynobase (enlargement of the receptacle bearing the ovary), arising between lobes of ovary, included, undivided.
- Fruit
- Schizocarps; nutlets 4, brown, ovoid, 1/10 to 1/8 inch, tuberculate, attached to gynobase along most of their length along adaxial keel, not grooved adaxially, margins with 1 or 2 rows of bristles, which are sometimes basally confluent to form wing-like or cup-like border along margins.
Ecology
- Habitat
- Open, dry, sandy to silty mixed-grass, shortgrass, sand, and sandsage prairies
- Distribution
- Principally west 4/5 of Kansas
Additional Notes
Comments
Plants with the marginal bristles of the nutlet faces essentially separate and their bases not forming a definite cup are var. redowskii; those with marginal bristles obviously confluent and forming a definite cup or crown on the nutlet faces are var. cupulata (A. Gray) M.E. Jones. Named for Russian botanist D. Redowsky. Lappula, little bur.
Synonyms
Alternative scientific names that have been used for this plant.
Scientific Name: Lappula texana
Full Citation: Lappula texana Britton
Quick Facts
- Plant Type
- Wildflower
- Family
- Boraginaceae - Borage Family
- Life Span
- Annual
- Height
- 4-18 inches
- Origin
- Native
- Last Updated
- 2014-05-25
Color Groups
Flowering Period
Blooms: May, June, July