Dry-sand or spreading pinweed Dry-sand or spreading pinweed

Lechea major Linnaeus var. divaricata (Shuttleworth ex Britton) A. Gray

Herbs, perennial. Stems: basal not produced; flowering erect, 25–60 cm, spreading-villous. Leaves of flowering stems alternate; blade lanceolate to elliptic-lanceolate, 5–8 × 1–3 mm, apex acute, abaxial surface villous on midvein and margins, adaxial glabrous. Pedicels 1 per axil, 1–1.5 mm. Flowers: calyx 1.3–1.5 mm, <usually lightly colored basally>, outer sepals shorter than inner. Capsules ellipsoid, 1.8–2 × 1.6–1.7 mm, longer than calyx. Seeds 1(–3), <membranous coat white>.

Flowering spring; fruiting summer–fall. Dry, open sand-scrub and flatwoods; of conservation concern; 0–100 m; Fla.

Lechea divaricata is endemic to peninsular Florida but apparently absent from the Florida Keys. A report of L. divaricata from Alabama was based on a misidentified specimen of L. mucronata (D. D. Spaulding 2013).