Glossopetalon A. Gray
Contenido
Descripción
Intricately or divaricately branched or matted, often spinescent shrubs to 2 m tall. Leaves alternate, entire, crowded or distant, lanceolate, elliptic, to oblanceolate or obovate, 5-10 mm long, forming decurrent lines or ridges on the stem, glabrous or minutely pubescent with ciliolate margins, the apices acute, mucronate or distinctly spine tipped. Flowers solitary, axillary or terminal on short shoots; glandular disk lining the hypanthium; sepals (4-)5(-6), lanceolate, ovate, or circular, 4-5 mm long, persistent; petals (4-)5(-6), white, narrowly lanceolate to broadly oblanceolate, deciduous, 6-10 mm long; stamens 6-10; carpels l(-3), sessile; stigma discoid. Fruits striated. Seeds 1-2 with a circular, irregular, whitish aril. -A genus of variable, minute characters; 2-3 spp.; w and sc U.S. and n Mex. (Greek: glossa = tongue + petalon = petal, referring to the shape of the petals). Ensign, M. 1942. Amer. Midi Nat 27:501-511. Holmgren, N. 1988. Brittonia 40:269-274. [Forsellesia].A