Stickseed

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Stickseed flower

Stickseed flower

Stickseed

Stickseed fruit

Stickseed leaves

Stickseed leaf stalk

Stickseed habit

Stickseed stem

Stickseed stem

Stickseed flower

Stickseed

Stickseed sepals

Stickseed

Stickseed leaves

Stickseed leaf

Stickseed

Morphology

Stem

Erect, usually solitary, branched above mid-point, coarse-hairy.

Leaves

Alternate and basal; basal leaves smaller than stem leaves, usually absent at flowering; lower stem leaves stalked, elliptic to ovate, 1 to 12 inches long, 1 to 4 inches wide; veins 3-7, conspicuous; tip pointed; base narrowed to stalk; upper leaves sessile, progressively narrower; tip pointed to long sharply-pointed.

Inflorescence

Cymes, usually paired, spreading, 2 to 6 inches long, terminal on branches; elongating into spike-like false racemes.

Flower

Sepals 5, lanceolate, 1/25 to 1/12 inch long, bristly-hairy; corolla 1/12 to 1/8 inch wide, 5-lobed, white to rarely pale blue, barely exceeding sepals; small appendages in throat; stamens 5.

Fruit

Nutlets, 4, collectively spherical, about 1/12 to 1/8 inch long, outer surface bristly; fruiting stalks 1/12 to 2/5 inch long, turned downward.

Ecology

Habitat

Woods, thickets, stream banks, roadsides; dry to moist soils.

Distribution

East 4/5 of Kansas

Practical Information

Uses

Native Americans boiled the roots and used the liquid as a wash for itches and mixed the crushed root with bear oil to create an ointment for cancer. The plant was also used to enhance memory, as a love charm, and to repel insects from potatoes.