Nuttall’s meadow beauty

Rhexia serrulata Nuttall, Gen. N. Amer. Pl. 1: 243. 1818, not Richard 1813

Caudices developed; roots short, fibrous, lignescent, non-tuberiferous. Stems branched proximally, 10–30(–40) cm, faces subequal, flat to convex, 4-angled, internodes glabrous, nodes sparsely hirsute, hairs eglandular. Leaves: petiole 0.5–1.5 mm; blade ovate to suborbiculate, 1–1.5 cm × 3–10 mm, margins serrate, surfaces glabrous abaxially, sparsely villous adaxially. Inflorescences condensed, mostly obscured by foliaceous bracts. Flowers: hypanthium globose, much longer than the constricted neck, 5–7 mm, villous-hirsute, hairs gland-tipped; calyx lobes deltate, apices obtuse, hirsute, hairs gland-tipped; petals ascending, lavender-rose, 1–1.2 cm; anthers straight, 2 mm. Seeds 0.6 mm, surfaces with relatively short, interrupted, irregularly spaced, ± longitudinal ridges. 2n = 22.

Flowering Jun–Aug(–Sep). Pine flatwoods, bogs, seeps, pond margins, clearings, ditch banks, roadside depressions, sandy peat; 0–50 m; Fla., Ga.