Slender milkwort

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Slender milkwort leaf

Slender milkwort

Slender milkwort leaves

Slender milkwort

Slender milkwort

Slender milkwort inflorescence

Slender milkwort flowers

Morphology

Stem

Erect, slender, simple or rarely branched, bluish-green or silvery-green, waxy, grooved longitudinally.

Leaves

Alternate, few, distantly spaced, erect or ascending, narrowly linear to awl-shaped, 1/6 to 1/2 inch long, less than 1/25 inch wide, waxy, absent at base.

Inflorescence

Raceme, spike-like, cylindrical, dense, .4 to 1.4 inch long, 1/5 to 1/3 inch in diameter, terminal; stalk .8 to 1.6 inch long.

Flower

Pink, rose-purple or rarely white; sepals 5, uppermost and lower 2 small and greenish, lateral 2 larger and colored like petals; petals 3, united into tube, 3-lobed at apex, middle lobe keel-shaped and often crested on back; corolla 1/3 to 2/5 inch long, 2-5 times longer than calyx; stamens 6-8, fused to corolla tube.

Fruit

Capsule, nearly round to egg-shaped, to 1/6 inch long, grooved, 2-seeded; seeds tiny, plump, soft-hairy.

Ecology

Habitat

Moist meadows and dry prairies, open woods, low sandy or silty open ground.

Distribution

East 1/2 of Kansas.