Triodanis perfoliata

Triodanis perfoliata seeds. Photo by Lisa Hintz

First overview block: Scientific Name, Synonyms, Family, English Names, Other Names

Taxonomy

• Kingdom: Plantae
• (unranked): Angiosperms
• (unranked): Eudicots
• (unranked): Asterids
• Order: Asterales
• Family: Campanulaceae
• Genus: Triodanis
• Species: T. perfoliata

Description

General: Erect annual herbs, the stems erect, usually simple, 1-6 dm. tall, the surface rough.

Leaves: Leaves alternate, sessile, cordate-clasping, rotund-ovate, palmately veined, the leaves 0.5-3 cm. long and wide, or the lowermost ones narrower, more obovate, and short-petiolate.

Flowers: Flowers sessile in the axils of the middle and upper leaves, 1-several in each axil, in a leafy, spike-like arrangement; calyx lobes 5, divided to the base, narrowly triangular and pointed, 5-8 mm. long; corolla united, regular, the 5 lobes longer than the tube, 8-13 mm, long, deep purple to pale lavender; stamens 5, free from the corolla and from each other; the lower flowers do not open and the calyx of these is smaller and 3- or 4-lobed; ovary inferior.

Fruit: Capsules oblong, 2- or 3-celled, about 1 cm. long in the open flowers, half that size in the others.