Western Wetland Flora
Field Office Guide to Plant Species
Nitrophila occidentalis (Moq.) S. Wats.
- Family: Goosefoot (Chenopodiaceae)
- Flowering: May-October
- Field Marks: Nitrophila has several characteristics that distinguish it from other genera in the family: the sepals are barely united or free from each other and are papery in texture: the leaves are opposite.
- Habitat: Moist alkaline habitats.
- Habit: Perennial herb with deep rootstocks.
- Stems: Spreading but sometimes becoming upright, much branched, up to 1 foot tall, smooth.
- Leaves: Opposite, simple, linear to oblong, up to 1 inch long, pointed at the tip, tapering to the sessile base, somewhat fleshy, smooth, without teeth.
- Flowers: Small, 1-3 in the axils of the leaves, subtended by a few short, leaf-like bracts.
- Sepals: 5, green, free or nearly so from each other, oblong, up to 1/10 inch long, pink at first, fading to straw-colored, somewhat papery in texture.
- Petals: 0.
- Stamens: 5, united at the base.
- Pistils: Ovary superior, smooth; stigmas 2.
- Fruits: Ovoid, beaked, smooth, shorter than the subtending sepals, brown; seeds minute, black, shiny.
Previous Species -- Chamisso's Miner's-lettuce (Montia chamissoi) Greene)
Return to Species List -- Group 7
Next Species -- Arctic Pearlwort (Sagina saginoides)
