Tripterocalyx micranthus (Sand Verbena) - photos and description
Looking straight down on plant
Fuzz
is from nearby Cottonwoods gone to seed
Bracts lance-shaped
Fruit enclosed inside papery wings
General: Annual branching at the base, with a prostrate to decumbent growth habit. Stems pale. Plants are glandular pubescent.
Flowers: Flowers grow in umbels from leaf axils, they are greenish-white, tubular, with 4 or 5 spreading lobes at tip. There are 5 bracts at the base of umbel, bracts lance-shaped with an abrupt tip. We measured a flower at 10 mm long by 4 mm wide, and measured a bract at 10 mm long.
Leaves: Leaves opposite, lanceolate, leaf measured at 45 mm long by 22 mm wide.
Height: Stem length listed in Flora of Alberta to 60 cm long, I measured stems to 20 cm long.
Habitat: Sand dunes.
Abundance: This plant is very rare, ranked as an S2 (as of 2021) by the Saskatchewan Conservation Data Centre.
Origin: Native.
When and where photographed: Above photos taken June 15th, sand dunes, about 300 km west of our home in Regina, SK.