Key to Suaeda

View taxon page for Suaeda

(For a list of species in Suaeda, use the above link.)

Jepson Manual glossary definitions can be seen by moving your cursor over words underlined with dots.

1. Plant glabrous; ×-sections of fresh leaves ± uniformly green, visible at >= 10× magnification; calyx generally 

bilateral 

Divisible into mirror-image halves in only one way.

, 1 or 3 

lobes 

1. A major expansion or bulge, such as on the margin of a leaf, sepal, or petal, or on the surface of an ovary. 2. The free tips of otherwise fused structures, such as sepals or petals; larger than teeth.

generally larger, lobes in age generally hooded and keeled, horned or wing-margined; ovary rounded to lenticular, stigmas glabrous, arising from tip of ovary; seeds horizontal, lenticular and shiny, or flat and dull

2. Perennial herb, subshrub, or occasionally annual; mature calyx lobes hooded, keeled, horns and wings 0; SCo ..... S. esteroa

2' Annual; mature calyx lobes horned, keeled, wing-margined, not hooded

3. Flowers 3–7 per cluster; bracts generally widest proximal to middle, fresh bracts membranous-margined at base; branches generally 

decumbent 

lying mostly flat on the ground but with tips curving up.

to 

ascending 

Curving or angling upward from base, or about 30-60 degrees less than vertical or away from axis of attachment.

..... S. calceoliformis

3' Flowers 1–3 per cluster; bracts generally widest at ± middle, fresh bracts not membranous-margined at base; branches generally 

spreading 

Oriented more or less perpendicularly to the axis of attachment; often, more or less horizontal.

..... S. occidentalis

1' Plant glabrous to hairy; ×-sections of fresh leaves with a dark green ring just inside epidermis, visible at >= 10× magnification; calyx ± 

radial 

Divisible into mirror-image halves in three or more ways.

, lobes in age generally rounded, hooded or keeled, horns and wings 0; ovary occasionally with neck, stigmas hairy-papillate, arising from pit at tip of ovary; seeds horizontal or vertical, lenticular and shiny

4. Bracts generally < leaves, generally not overlapping or covering 

internodes 

Segment of an axis (generally a stem) between successive positions (nodes) from which one or more structures (especially leaves, buds, branches, or flowers) arise.

at stem tips; old 

leaf 

Organ arising from a stem, generally composed of a stalk (petiole) and a flat, expanded, green, photosynthetic area (blade); distinguished from a leaflet by the presence in its axil of a bud, branch, thorn, or flower; sometimes with lateral, basal appendages (stipules); either simple (toothed, lobed, or dissected but not divided into leaflets) or compound (divided into leaflets).

 

scars 

Mark left by the natural separation of two structures, as a leaf scar on a stem.

± smooth; flowers 0.7–2 mm, generally on distal stems; inflorescence branches slender, 0.4–2 mm diam; generally inland ..... S. nigra

4' Bracts generally = leaves, overlapping, covering internodes at stem tips; old leaf scars knobby; flowers 1–3 mm, generally throughout; inflorescence branches thick, 2–4 mm diam; coastal

5. Plant glabrous to sparsely hairy, generally green to red; ovary ± conic, without obvious neck; salt marshes, CCo ..... S. californica

5' Plant generally densely hairy, glaucous; ovary pear-shaped with obvious neck; coastal bluffs, margins of salt marshes, s CCo, SCo, ChI ..... S. taxifolia

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