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 Flower Max Licher @http://swbiodiversity.org, Usage Rights: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) |  Leaves Liz Makings @http://swbiodiversity.org, Usage Rights Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) |  Plants Max Licher @http://swbiodiversity.org, Usage Rights: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) | | | |
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Origin:
Native
Life Cycle:
Perennial
General Desc:
Upright perennial, mostly basal leaves; forms colonies that spread by underground stems. Atop the nearly leafless flower stalk, numerous tiny flowers form a dense, fragrant cone-like spike surrounded by 4 to 9 showy, white spoon-shaped petal-like bracts.
Identification notes: Stems simple, leaves mostly basal and oval; flowers terminal on stems above the leaves, cone-shaped, subtended by white petal-like bracts; fruits capsules, split open when mature, found in moist areas.
Height:
4 to almost 20 inches
Habitat Description: Found in saline or alkaline (chalky or limey) soils in wet or moist places such as streambeds, along springs, in wet meadows, on muddy creek banks, in the shallow water of pond margins, in bogs, marshes and swamps.
Plant Communities:
Riparian
Elevation: 3000 - 5800 feet
Color:
White, sometimes reddish
Shape:
Other in elongated clusters
Tubular:
N
Flowering Period:
May - Aug
Description:
Each tiny flower (floret) lacks sepals and petals and has a 1/4 inch round, white bract beneath it. At the stem tip, about 100 florets form a dense, cone-like spike to 1-1/2 inches long, encircled by 4 to 9 white bracts (sometimes reddish beneath).
Leaf Color:
Green
Leaf Type:
Simple
Leaf Shape:
Round or oval
Leaf Margin:
Smooth
Leaf Attachment:
Basal and alternate
Leaves Clasp:
Y
Hairs:
Stems
Spines:
N
Leaf Description:
Stems are smooth to hairy, nearly leafless, usually having 1 clasping leaf midstem with 1 to 4 smaller upright leaves growing from its axil (between the leaf and the stem). Most leaves are basal, 1-1/2 to 7 inches long, oval with a heart-shaped base.
Fruit Color: Brown
Fruit Type: Capsule
Fruit Notes: Fruit is brown, 1/4 inch high and contains 6 to 10 tiny seeds which look like the seeds of a pepper.
Seed Notes: Seed is brown, 1/16 inch long with a crisscross pattern on its surface (reticulate).
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