Mitracarpus breviflorus A. Gray
Family: Rubiaceae
White Girdlepod
Mitracarpus breviflorus image

Plant: Annual herb; 5-40 cm high, simple or branched from base

Leaves: 2.5 cm long, lanceolate to oblanceolate, glabrous or margins and veins slightly scabrous; apices obtuse to acute; petiolar base often pubescent on lower surface, each stipular connection with about 5-7 prominent and many hair-like setae

Flowers: 2 large calyx lobes lanceolate-subulate, equaling or surpassing corolla; 2 small calyx lobes dentiform and hyaline; corolla 1.5-2 mm long, white glabrous

Fruit: a 2-loculed, thin-walled, capsule, ca. 1.5 mm in diameter, circumscissile about the middle

Misc: Rocky slopes and washes; grasslands with oaks, pines or junipers; 1200-2300 m (3900-7600 ft); Aug-Oct

REFERENCES: Terrell, Edward E. 1995 Rubiaceae. Houstonia. J. Ariz. - Nev. Acad. Sci. 29(l): 36.