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4 Leaflets 3 (-5), sessile or subsessile, the petiolules 0-3 mm long; larger leaflets 4-8 cm long, 0.5-2.5 cm wide, averaging about 2.5× as long as wide, the apex obtuse to acute; fruit yellow-green when ripe, longitudinally winged and ribbed in ×-section; petals white (rarely tinged with pink); inflorescence nodding in bud; underground storage organ a spherical tuber | |
4 Leaflets (3-) 5, petiolulate, the petiolules (7-) 10-25 mm long; larger leaflets 6-15 cm long, 3.5-7 cm wide, averaging about 1.8× as long as wide, the apex acuminate; fruit bright red when ripe, smoothly elliptical in ×-section; petals light green; inflorescence erect in bud; underground storage organ an +/- elongate root, this vertical or horizontal, and sometimes branched | |
3 Inflorescence of single terminal flowers on the 1-several branches; fruit an aggregate of achenes; stem leaves 3 | |
1 Cauline leaves simple. | |
5 Inflorescence an involucrate head subtended by phyllaries, heads solitary or many, variously arrayed in secondary inflorescences; fruit a cypsela | |
5 Inflorescence various, but not as above; fruit various, not as above (sometimes the flowers tightly grouped, but then with other features differing, such as stamens 4, or green calyx present, or fruit a schizocarp of mericarps, etc.). | |
6 Fruit a 3-lobed, 3-locular capsule; inflorescence a cyathium, consisting of a single pistillate flower (reduced to a single 3-carpellate pistil) and 2 or more staminate flowers (each reduced to 1 stamen), borne in a cup-like involucre, the involucre bearing pointed or rounded glands, these sometimes brightly colored and petaloid, mimicking an individual flower (the cyathia then secondarily arranged in terminal cymes, or solitary and axillary, etc.); fresh plants with milky juice | |
6 Fruit various, not as above; inflorescence not a cyathium (and staminate or bisexual flowers almost always with > 1 stamen); fresh plants lacking milky juice. | |
7 Leaves herbaceous, thin in texture, whorls separated; pistil 1, of 2-5 fused carpels; fruit a capsule, achene, or drupe. | |
11 Corolla radially symmetrical, the petals separate; carpels 2, 3, or 5; stamens 5, 10, or many. | |
13 Inflorescence an axillary umbel; leaves narrowly linear and more than 10× as long as wide, > 20 mm long and < 2 mm wide; whorls of 3-6 leaves | |
13 Inflorescence a terminal cyme, raceme, panicle, or umbel; leaves as above, or broader in shape, narrower, or shorter; whorls of 3-16 leaves. | |
8 Larger whorled leaves on a plant > 10 mm wide. | |
18 Inflorescence of terminal involucrate clusters; perianth of 6 tepals; fruit an achene; stamens 9; [plants of very dry habitats] | |
21 Corolla pink-purple, 6-merous, the petals separate and borne on the edge of a hypanthium; stamens 8, 10, or 12; [plants of wetlands] | |
21 Corolla white, yellow, or greenish, 4-, 5-, or 7-merous, the petals fused at least basally into a tube (falling as a unit), not on a hypanthium; stamens 2, 4, 5, or 7; [plants of mesic habitats]. | |
22 Stamens 4, 5, or 7; corolla radially symmetrical. | |
23 Petals yellowish-white, with prominent green streaks; biennial or monocarpic plant, 10-30 dm tall when fertile; leaves 15-35 cm long | |
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1 Calyx immediately subtended by 1-3 pairs of bracts; [tribe Caryophylleae]. | |
1 Calyx lacking subtending bracts. | |
3 Sepals 25-62 mm long; calyx lobes longer than the calyx tube, the lobes as long as or longer than the corolla lobes; [tribe Sileneae] | |
3 Sepals (1-) 10-28 (-40) mm long; calyx lobes shorter than the calyx tube, the lobes much shorter than the corolla lobes (except Gypsophila). | |
5 Sepals 1-5 mm long, the commissures between the sepals scarious. | |
6 Leaves lanceolate to ovate, (1-) 2-20 (-35) mm wide; plants few-branched, or if diffusely-branched, only in the upper half of the plant's length | |
4 Styles 3-5 (or 0 in staminate plants); fruit valves 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, or 10; petals generally appendaged; [tribe Sileneae] | |
11 Leaf blades with dense silky white hairiness; flowers bisexual; [or former Lychnis section Agrostemma] | |
11 Leaf blades variously pubescent, but not with silky-appressed pubescence; [Silene section Melandrium] |