Fringed jointweed

Herbs, annual, gynodioecious, 2.5-11 dm. Stems erect, usually simple, sometimes branched distally, glabrous or minutely pubescent. Leaves fugaceous; ocrea margins ciliate; blade linear, larger ones falcate, (3-)11-33(-51) × 0.3-1.3(-3) mm, base barely tapered, margins not hyaline, apex acuminate, glabrous. Inflorescences (10-)20-35(-45) mm; ocreola encircling rachis, only the base adnate to rachis, apex acuminate. Pedicels spreading to slightly reflexed in anthesis, sharply reflexed in fruit, 0.3-1.1 mm, as long or much longer than subtending ocreola. Flowers bisexual or pistillate; outer tepals appressed in anthesis and fruit, white, distal portion of midrib often inconspicuously greenish, narrowly oblong, 0.9-1.5 mm in anthesis, margins entire; inner tepals appressed in anthesis and fruit, white, narrowly oblong, 0.8-1.5 mm in anthesis, margins entire; filaments dimorphic; anthers deep red; styles and stigmas ca. 0.1 mm in anthesis. Achenes exserted, reddish brown to yellow-brown, 3-gonous, 1.7-3.4 × 0.6-0.9 mm, shiny, smooth. 2n = 22.

Flowering Sep-Dec. Sandy pinelands and pine barrens; 0-50 m; Fla.