| perennial; NOT annual |
| plants not clumped, or if so loosely,
forming sessile, leafy rosettes or fleshy turions; NOT [plants clumped
or caespitose, forming short, leafy, epigaeous stolons] |
| plants lacking stolons; NOT [with basal
thread-like, remotely leafed stolons, terminating in compact, fleshy
turions] |
| plants forming rosettes or large,
hypogaeous turions; NOT [plants lacking rosettes, only compact
hypogaeous turions present] |
| plants 0.3-19.0 dm high; NOT 0.2-6.0 dm
high |
| stem-base erect; NOT [decumbent to
ascending] |
| bark NOT shreddy |
| stem with hairy, elevated lines,
decurrent from the leaf bases |
| leaves opposite or verticillate, at
least below; NOT alternate |
| leaves lanceolate to oblong; NOT
narrowly lanceolate, NOT linear, NOT [ovate to elliptic] |
| leaves toothed |
| leaves NOT rolled at margins |
| cauline leaves either linear or entire,
NOT both (FOA) |
| gemmae absent; NOT [often present in
the upper leaf-axils] |
| inflorescence predominantly glandular
mixed with strigillose hairs; NOT [strigillose, eglandular], NOT
[white-canescent, occasionally with a few glandular hairs] |
| flowers actinomorphic; NOT zygomorphic |
| flowers small, less than 12 mm across |
| hypanthium present |
| petals white, pink or rose-purple; NOT
yellow, NOT cream |
| style NOT deflexed |
| stigma entire, cylindric, clavate or
capitate; NOT distinctly 4-lobed |
| seeds narrowly obovoid; NOT broadly
obovoid |
| seeds 0.8-1.6 (1.9) mm long; NOT
1.1-1.6 (1.8) mm long |
| seeds 0.3-0.8 mm wide; NOT 0.8-1.2 mm
wide |
| seeds longitudinally striate with
hyaline crests or ridges but lacking distinct papillae; NOT distinctly
papillose |
| coma white or dingy; NOT reddish |
| coma readily detached; NOT persistent |