Western marbleseed

Images

Click on image to view full size

Western marbleseed

Western marbleseed flowers

Western marbleseed

Western marbleseed

Western marbleseed flowers

Western marble seed leaves

Western marbleseed

Western marbleseed

Western marbleseed

Western marbleseed

Western marbleseed

Western marbleseed habit

Morphology

Stem

Erect, several to many, branched above, covered with stiff white hairs.

Leaves

Alternate, simple, sessile, lanceolate to ovate, 2 to 5 inches long, .5 to 1.25 inch wide, stiff-hairy, 5-7 prominent veins beneath; basal leaves usually absent at flowering.

Inflorescence

Racemes, coiled, terminal.

Flower

5-parted, sessile; calyces 5-lobed, sepals narrowly lanceolate, stiff-hairy; corollas 5-lobed, narrowly tube-shaped, about 1/4 to 1/2 inch long, dull white, lobes converging, hairy; stamens 5; style thread-like, extending beyond tips of corollas.

Fruit

1-4 nutlets, oval, hard, whitish, 1-seeded.

Ecology

Habitat

Dry, sandy or gravelly prairies, pastures and open woods, most abundant on hillsides in alkaline soils.

Distribution

Throughout except southwest corner of Kansas.

Practical Information

Uses

Some Great Plains tribes mixed crushed leaves and stems of western marbleseed with grease and used it as a rub to treat numbness and rheumatism.

Additional Notes