Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Triantha

false-asphodel, tofieldia
Habit Herbs, perennial, rhizomatous.
Stems

glandular and/or glandular-pubescent.
Leaves

mostly basal with 0–3 towards stem base, 2-ranked, equitant;

blade linear.
Inflorescences

terminal, racemose, open or dense and spikelike, elongating in fruit, bracteate, bracteolate;

bracteoles connate in epicalyx.
Flowers

borne in clusters of 2–7;

tepals persistent, 6, in 2 somewhat dissimiliar series, distinct;

stamens 6;

filaments strongly flattened, dilated basally;

anthers basifixed, 2-locular, introrse, without appendages;

ovary superior, stipitate, apocarpous basally, glabrous;

intercarpellary nectary present;

styles 3.
Fruits

capsular, ovoid to broadly ellipsoid or cylindrical, glabrous, dehiscence septicidal, then adaxially loculicidal.
Seeds

appendaged.
x

= 15.

Triantha
Distribution
from USDA
North America; Japan
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Species 4 (3 in the flora).

Recognition here of the genus Triantha follows J. G. Baker (1879) and R. R. Gates (1918); see J. G. Packer (1993). R. W. Cruden (1991) provided cladistic evidence supporting this segregation from Tofieldia.

In the absence of any clear understanding of evolutionary relationships within Triantha, the species are here listed alphabetically.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Styles connate basally into column 1/4–2/3 their length; capsules hard, ± equaling or slightly longer than tepals and ± enclosed by them.
T. racemosa
1. Styles distinct to base, not forming column; capsules chartaceous and easily ruptured, considerably longer than tepals and not enclosed by them.
→ 2
2. Seed coat present; inflorescence sometimes forming globose head (subsp. occidentalis); glandular hairs on stem below inflorescence sometimes uniformly 4–6 times longer than wide (subsp. montana); w Canada, nw United States.
T. occidentalis
2. Seed coat absent; inflorescence never forming globose head; glandular hairs on stem below inflorescence never uniformly 4–6 times longer than wide; widespread in Canada, also in Alaska, some north, northeastern states, and Oregon.
T. glutinosa
Source FNA vol. 26, p. 61. Author: John G. Packer.
Parent taxa Liliaceae
Subordinate taxa
T. glutinosa, T. occidentalis, T. racemosa
Synonyms Tofieldia section T.
Name authority (Nuttall) Baker: J. Linn. Soc., Bot. 17: 490. (1879)
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).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America, OregonFlora, UW Burke Herbarium

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers