Aunt Lucy

not listed

N5? - Secure

SNR - Unranked

not listed

FACU - Facultative upland

FAC - Facultative

FAC - Facultative

Aunt Lucy is a 6″ to 18″ tall, erect, annual forb that rises on multiple stems from a large, fleshy taproot.

The stems are weak, angled, and usually branched. They are erect or recline on the ground with only the tip ascending. They are fleshy, hollow, pale green to pale purple, and covered with a whitish, waxy bloom (glaucous). They are sparsely covered with straight, stiff, appressed hairs and sometimes also have some stiff, bristly hairs.

The lower leaves are opposite and the upper leaves are alternate. The leaf blades oblong to egg-shaped in outline, are up to 2⅜″ long, and up to 2″ wide. They are deeply cut into a terminal lobe and 3 to 6 pairs of lateral lobes (pinnatifid). They are on stout, flattened, up to ¾″ long leaf stalks that have bristly hairs near the base. The lobes are narrow and inversely lance-shaped. They may be opposite or alternate. They are untoothed or have a few large teeth or lobes. The main axis of the leaf blade (rachis) is winged. The upper and lower surfaces are hairy.

The inflorescence is a solitary flower rising on a short stalk from a leaf axil or from the stem opposite a leaf. The flower stalk elongates to about 2″ in fruit.

The flowers are about ¼″ in diameter. There are 5 green sepals, 5 white to pale blue petals, 5 stamens with brown anthers, and a single style. The sepals are united at the base into a short calyx tube then separated into 5 spreading, hairy, lance-shaped, pointed, about 5 ⁄16″ long and ⅛″ wide lobes. The sepals are as long or longer than the corolla. The petals are united at the base for over half of their length into a ⅛″ long corolla tube then separated into 5 spreading, rounded lobes. They often have tiny purple specks. The stamens do not project beyond the corolla tube. The style is split at the tip into two stigmas.

The fruit is a green, fleshy, hairy, drooping, spherical, 3 ⁄16″ to ¼″ in diameter capsule. It is subtended by the persistent calyx with 5 enlarged, widely spread lobes. The fruit contains 4 seeds.

6″ to 18″

White to pale blue

Dry to moist. Deciduous woodlands, thickets, flood plains, stream banks, disturbed sites. Partial sun or light shade.

May to June

Sources

2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 28, 29, 30.

Native

Locally common

Habitat

Plant

Leaves

Fruit