Flora of North America species comparison

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Hypoxis

star-grass
Habit Herbs, perennial, scapose, glabrous or sparsely to densely pubescent, often pilose, pubescence including at least some irregularly stellate trichomes, rhizomatous or cormose.
Stems

subterranean, usually vertical, fleshy.
Leaves

grasslike;

blade linear to setaceous.
Scape

usually shorter than leaves.
Inflorescences

depauperate racemes or umbels, borne singly in leaf axils, bracteate.
Flowers

tepals 6, spreading, distinct, often greenish abaxially, yellow adaxially, outer usually ± pilose abaxially;

anthers 6, spreading, shortly connate at bases;

ovary inferior, usually densely pubescent to pilose, sometimes glabrate;

style erect.
Fruits

capsular, crowned by persistent flower parts throughout maturation.
Seeds

(5–)10–50 per capsule, ± globose, hilum and micropyle prominent, surfaces sharply to bluntly muricate or with rounded pebbling, sometimes with iridescent, membranous coat.

Hypoxis
Distribution
from USDA
Mainly Southern Hemisphere
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Species 100 (7 in the flora).

Most species of Hypoxis are in southern Africa. The key to flowering plants presented below will work for most specimens; some specimens have intermediate characteristics and are impossible to identify without seeds. When mature seeds are available, identifications should be confirmed by examination of the seed characters. Relationships among the species in the flora are uncertain and will remain so until a better understanding of the primarily African H. angustifolia complex is reached. Therefore, species are treated here in alphabetical order.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Leaves glabrous or nearly so, or with scattered trichomes near base.
→ 2
1. Leaves sparsely to densely pubescent, at least near base.
→ 4
2. Leaves 0.3–1 mm wide, hard, stiff; floral bracts 1–7(–12) mm; ovary densely pubescent; seeds with low, rounded sculpturing.
H. juncea
2. Leaves 1–15 mm wide, soft, flexible; floral bracts 1–20(–80) mm; ovary glabrate or sparsely to densely pubescent; seeds muricate.
→ 3
3. Pedicel usually 2+ times longer than bracts; tepals much longer than ovary; ovary obconic, densely pubescent.
H. hirsuta
3. Pedicel usually shorter than bracts; tepals usually 2 or less times longer than ovary; ovary cylindric, glabrate or sparsely pubescent.
H. curtissii
4. Pedicel usually 2+ times longer than bracts.
→ 5
4. Pedicel usually less than 2 times as long as bracts.
→ 6
5. Leaves 1–15 mm wide; seeds coarsely muricate.
H. hirsuta
5. Leaves 0.3–1 mm wide; seeds with low, rounded sculpturing.
H. juncea
6. Pedicel usually longer than bracts; tepals longer than pedicel; anthers 1.5–3.5 mm; (old leaf bases persisting as bristles).
H. rigida
6. Pedicel shorter to longer than bracts; tepals shorter to longer than pedicel; anthers 0.6–2.2 mm.
→ 7
7. Tepals 1.5–2 times as long as ovary.
H. sessilis
7. Tepals less than 1.5 times as long as ovary.
→ 8
8. Scape topped by 2 opposite bracts.
H. mexicana
8. Scape topped by 1 bract or, if inflorescences 2- or more-flowered, bracts not opposite.
H. wrightii
Source FNA vol. 26, p. 201. Author: Alan Herndon.
Parent taxa Liliaceae
Subordinate taxa
H. curtissii, H. hirsuta, H. juncea, H. mexicana, H. rigida, H. sessilis, H. wrightii
Name authority Linnaeus: Syst. Nat. ed. 10, 2: 986, 1366. (1759)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



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