Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses

CATNIP NOSEBURN

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Tragia ramosa Torr.

Konza Prairie, Riley County, Kansas

Perennial

Height: 4-20 inches

Family: Euphorbiaceae - Spurge Family

Flowering Period: June, July, August, September

Stems:

Decumbent to ascending or erect; sap watery.

Leaves:

Cauline, alternate, simple; stipules present; petiole 1/25 to 2/5 inch; blade narrowly ovate to linear-lanceolate, 1/5 to 1.6 inch long, 1/8 to 4/5 inch wide, base subcordate to truncate, margins serrate, tip acute.

Inflorescences:

Racemes, axillary or terminal, 1/5 to 3/5 inch; staminate and pistillate flowers on same plant, pistillate flowers proximal and staminate flowers distal; staminate flowers 2-20 per raceme, pistillate flowers 1-2 per raceme; staminate bracts lanceolate, 1/16 to 1/12 inch; pistillate bracts 1/25 to 1/16 inch.

Flowers:

Staminate flowers greenish: pedicels to 1/12 inch; sepals 3-4, oblanceolate, 1/25 to 1/11 inch; petals 0; stamens 3-6(-10). Pistillate flowers greenish: sepals 6, connate basally, lanceolate, 1/32 to 1/10 inch, shorter than gynoecium (collective term for the pistil(s) of a flower); petals 0; styles 3, connate proximally more than 1/2 their lengths, simple.

Fruits:

Capsules 3-lobed, not enveloped by persistent bracts, 1/8 to 1/6 inch long, 1/4 to 1/3 inch wide; seeds dark brown, globose to ovoid, 1/10 to 1/7 inch.

Habitat:

Rocky to gravelly tallgrass, mixed-grass, and shortgrass prairies

Distribution:

West 4/5 of Kansas

Origin:

Native

Comments:

The herbage is covered with stiff stinging hairs that are painful when touched, thus the common name nose burn. Tragia, for Hieronymus Bock, a German botanist whose Latinized name was Tragus and ramosa, branched.