Key to Boerhavia
View taxon page for Boerhavia
(For a list of species in Boerhavia, use the above link.)
Jepson Manual glossary definitions can be seen by moving your cursor over words underlined with dots.
1. Perianth red to purple (pale red);
perennial 
Completing life cycle (germination through death) in more than two years or growing seasons, generally non-woody (at least above ground) to woody; includes perennial herbs as well as subshrubs to trees; the abbreviation 'per' only refers to perennial herb, not to the word 'perennial' alone.
herb;
fruit glandular hairy
1' Perianth pale pink to white;
annual; fruit glabrous
3' Inflorescence ending in spike-like
raceme 
In flowering plants excluding Asteraceae, Cyperaceae, Poaceae, and some other groups, an unbranched inflorescence in which the flowers are borne on pedicels and nearly always open from the bottom to the top of the inflorescence. 2. In Asteraceae, Cyperaceae, Poaceae, and some other groups, a raceme-like inflorescence is one in which the inflorescence units (e.g., heads in Asteraceae; spikelets in Cyperaceae and Poaceae), instead of individual flowers, are stalked and attached directly to the main axis of the inflorescence, not to branches, and in which floral development may or may not proceed as in 1.
4. Bracts ±
persistent, ± = fruit; fruit
ribs generally 4;
stem glandular-hairy
..... B. wrightii 5. Stems bright green, strongly
ascending 
Curving or angling upward from base, or about 30-60 degrees less than vertical or away from axis of attachment.
to
erect 
Upright; vertically oriented.
;
perianth pale pink;
fruits often overlapping 50–100% of their lengths, 2.5–3.6 mm, tips generally bluntly
conic to round-truncate
..... var. coulteri 5' Stems ± purple,
decumbent 
lying mostly flat on the ground but with tips curving up.
to ascending; perianth pink; fruits overlapping 1–50% of their lengths or generally well spaced, 2–2.4+ mm, tips generally rounded
..... var. palmeri
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