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Support the Flora of the Southeastern US

2024 has been a banner year for making the best flora we can imagine. We've created:
With financial support from people like you, we are aiming even higher in 2025. Together we can accomplish all this: Vote on our 2025 priorities
  • Add Global Conservation Ranks (GRanks) vote
  • Professional graphic keys (polyclaves) to individual families/genera vote
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We've set a goal of recruiting 200 ongoing supporters to donate $15 or more each month in 2025. Please help us reach this goal and make next year's flora even better:

Click the number at the start of a key lead to highlight both that lead and its corresponding lead. Click again to show only the two highlighted leads. Click a third time to return to the full key with the selected leads still highlighted.

Key to Spigelia

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1 Inflorescence subtended by 4 or more leaf-like bracts in a pseudo-whorl (these considerably larger than the few pairs of bract-like leaves on the stem below); corolla < 12 mm long; [of s. peninsular FL]
1 Inflorescence not subtended by a pseudo-whorl of leaf like bracts (the leaves of the stem of normal size and arrayed in many pairs on the stem below; corolla 6-60 mm long; [collectively widespread].
  2 Corolla scarlet on the outer surface, yellow on the inner surface (rarely whitish or pink with longitudinal pink lines); leaves broadly rounded at base, 5-12 cm long, (1-) 2-6 cm wide; anthers exserted from the corolla tube; [collectively widespread]
  2 Corolla light pink to white on the outer and inner surfaces; leaves narrowly to broadly cuneate at base, 1.5-5 cm long, 0.5-2 cm wide; anthers included in the corolla tube; [of FL, AL, or TX].
    3 Corollas 25-40 mm long, usually pink, with deeper pink longitudinal stripes; styles jointed near the base; flowers in terminal, elongated, 1-sided, spikelike or racemelike inflorescences, the inflorescences actually of determinate helicoid cymes with indeterminate, unilateral branching; [Panhandle FL and adjacent AL, and Ridge and Valley of AL].
      4 Corolla 36-50 mm long; pistil 24-27 mm long; sepals 8-11 mm long; inflorescence with 2-4 flowers; leaves usually > 2× as long as wide; [of dolomitic glades of the southern Ridge and Valley of Bibb Co. AL]
      4 Corolla 25-30 mm long; pistil 17-19 mm long; sepals 4-6 mm long; inflorescence with 3-8 flowers; leaves usually < 2× as long as wide; [of pine savannas of Coastal Plain of Panhandle FL and adjacent AL]
    3 Corollas 8-17 mm long, usually white, with pale pink longitudinal stripes; styles jointed near the middle; flowers 2 per node, the first-to-flower terminal with an ebracteolate pedicel 1-3 mm long, the lateral flower with a 3-bracteate peduncle-pedicel 5-14 mm long; flowering nodes producing (1-) 2 (-3) lateral leafy shoots that repeat the pattern; [n. peninsular FL or TX].
        5 Plants multi-stemmed from the base; stems and leaves scabrous; leaves mainly 1.0-2.5 cm long; [TX]
        5 Plants 1-few stemmed; stems and leaves glabrous or slightly papillose; leaves mainly 2-5 cm long; [n. peninsular FL or e. TX].
          6 Corollas 10-17 mm long; [n. peninsular FL]
          6 Corollas 8-13 mm long; [e. TX]