|
 Clammy Cuphea
Cuphea
viscosissima
Blue Waxweed
Cuphea viscosissima Jacq.
From the
USGS
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| Family: Loosestrife (Lythraceae)
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| Flowering: July-October
|
| Field Marks: The stems and the opposite leaves are covered with
sticky hairs. The 6 purple petals and usually 11 stamens are also distinctive.
|
| Habitat: Open woods, thickets, old fields, prairies, wet meadows,
ditches, edge of ponds and lakes, along streams, gravel bars. |
| Habit: Annual herb with fibrous roots.
|
| Stems: Upright, slender, sticky-hairy, up to 20 inches tall.
|
| Leaves: Opposite, simple, ovate-lanceolate, pointed at the tip,
more or less rounded at the base, without teeth, usually sticky-hairy, up to 1
1/2 inches long. |
| Flowers: 1-2 in the axils of the leaves, on short stalks.
|
|
| Sepals: 6, united into a long tube, up to 1 inch long,
glandular-hairy. |
| Petals: 6, unequal in size, purple, free from each other.
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| Stamens: Usually 11.
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| Pistils: Ovary superior, with a curved gland at its base.
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| Fruits: Capsules oblongoid, containing several flattened, brownish
seeds. |
| Notes: This species is sometimes called the clammy cuphea. Its
scientific name is sometimes given as Cuphea petiolata. |
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LucasLand