Maid Marian, hairy meadow beauty

Rhexia mariana Linnaeus var. purpurea Michaux

Caudices not developed; roots often long and rhizomelike, tuberiferous. Stems mostly un­branched, 20–150 cm, faces strongly unequal, 1 pair of opposite faces rounded to convex, the other narrower, flat or concave, internodes and nodes hirsute to hirsute-villous or hispid-villous, hairs minutely gland-tipped. Leaves: petiole 0.5–1.5 mm; blade ovate to lanceolate-ovate, lanceolate, or elliptic, 3–7 cm × (5–)7–12(–15) mm, margins finely to coarsely serrate, surfaces hirsute. Inflorescences diffuse, not obscured by bracts. Flowers: hypanthium ovoid to subglobose, about as long as the constricted neck, 10–15(–20) mm, glabrous or glabrate, except calyx rims and lobes hirsute-villous, hairs minutely gland-tipped; calyx lobes narrowly triangular, apices acute to acuminate; petals spreading, dull lavender, 2–2.5 cm; anthers curved, 8–11 mm. Seeds 0.7 mm, surfaces with concentric rows of contiguous, dome-shaped, sometimes laterally flattened processes, with sculpturing most prominent toward crest. 2n = 44, 66.

Flowering (May–)Jun–Sep(–Oct). Pine flatwoods and savannas, turkey oak-pine flats, sandhills, hardwood clearings, pond, creek, and swamp edges, marshes, hillside bogs, seepages, borrow pits, ditches, wet roadsides, powerline rights-of-way, sandy peat, sandy clay, sand; 0–50 m; Ala., Fla., Ga., La., Md., Miss., N.C., S.C., Va.