Comprehensive Description
provided by North American Flora
Houstonia serpyllacea (Schlecht.) C. L. Smith; Greenman, Proc
Am. Acad. 32: 284. 1897.
Hedyotis serpyllacea Schlecht. Linnaea 9: 599. 1834. Mallostoma Shannoni Donn. Smith, Bot. Gaz. 18: 203. 1893. Arcytophyllum Shannoni Standley, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 18: 128. 1916.
Prostrate perennial, the stems 5-20 cm. long, stout, suffruticose, rooting at the nodes, yellowish, hirsutuious or glabrate; stipules minute, green, 1or 2-cuspidate and glandular-ciliolate; leaves very shortly petiolate or subsessile, the blades oval, ovate-oval, or ovate-elliptic, 3-6 mm. long, 2-4.5 mm. wide, acute to rounded at the apex, rounded at the base, thick, glabrous, the margins usually revolute, scaberulo-ciliolate; flowers axillary, solitary, the pedicels stout, ascending, equaling or shorter than the calyx and capsule; hypanthium glabrous or scaberulous; calyx-lobes lance-linear, 2-4 mm. long; corolla funnelform, about 1 cm. long, the lobes lancetriangular, acute, about as long as the tube, white-hirsutulous within; capsule oblong-obovate,
4 mm. long, costate, about three fourths inferior, obtuse at the apex; seeds rounded-oblong,
peltate, concavo-convex, coarsely scrobiculate.
Type locality: Between La Joy a and San Salvador [State of Mexico?]. Distribution: Veracruz to Guatemala.
- bibliographic citation
- Paul Carpenter Standley. 1918. RUBIALES; RUBIACEAE (pars). North American flora. vol 32(1). New York Botanical Garden, New York, NY
