Common Name: FRANKENIA Habit: (Annual) [perennial herb] to shrub, generally with rhizome; glands salt-secreting. Stem: prostrate to erect, nodes swollen, generally rooting. Leaf: opposite, 4-ranked, united by a single sheath, +- clustered, simple, 1--15 mm, salt-encrusted, generally persistent; blade obovate to oblong-oblanceolate or elliptic, generally leathery or fleshy, glabrous to hairy, margin entire, rolled under; stipules 0. Inflorescence: generally cyme, axillary. Flower: generally bisexual, radial; calyx persistent, sepals 4--7, fused, ribbed; petals 4--7, free, white to pink or blue-purple, overlapping, clawed, with adaxial scale-like appendage near base; stamens 3--12(25), 2-whorled, outer whorl shorter; ovary superior, chambers 1--4, styles 1--4, exserted, ovules 1--many. Fruit: loculicidal capsule within persistent calyx. Seed: 1--many, ivory to gold-brown. Etymology: (Johann Frankenius, 1590--1661, Swedish botanist) Reference: Whalen 1987 Syst Bot Monogr 17:1--93
Frankenia salina (Molina) I.M. Johnst.
NATIVE Habit: Matted subshrub < 3 m diam. Stem: +- prostrate, 1--6 dm, glabrous to hairy. Leaf: blade 4--15 mm, 1--6 mm wide, margins not strongly thickened, weakly rolled under, leathery, abaxially glabrous to sparsely hairy. Inflorescence: 1 to cymose in upper axils. Flower: calyx tube 4--9 mm; petals 6--14 mm, white to pink or blue-purple; stamens generally 6, 5--12 mm; styles 3(4). Fruit: 3--5 mm. Seed: 1--20, 1--1.5 mm, +- ellipsoid. Ecology: Salt marshes, alkali flats; Elevation: < 750 m. Bioregional Distribution: GV, CCo, SCo, ChI, SNE, DMoj; Distribution Outside California: to Nevada, Mexico, South America. Flowering Time: Apr--Sep Synonyms: Frankenia grandifolia Cham. & Schltdl.; Frankenia grandifolia var. campestris A. Gray; Ocimum salinum Molina Jepson eFlora Author: Carrie Kiel & R. John Little Reference: Whalen 1987 Syst Bot Monogr 17:1--93 Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange) Previous taxon: Frankenia pulverulenta Next taxon: Garryaceae
Citation for this treatment: Carrie Kiel & R. John Little 2012, Frankenia salina, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=26050, accessed on January 24, 2025.
Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2025, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on January 24, 2025.
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(Note: any qualifiers in the taxon distribution description, such as 'northern', 'southern', 'adjacent' etc., are not reflected in the map above, and in some cases indication of a taxon in a subdivision is based on a single collection or author-verified occurrence).
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CCH collections by month
Duplicates counted once; synonyms included.
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