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

Uvularia

bellwort, merrybells
Habit Herbs, caulescent, glabrous or pubescent, from short or elongate rhizomes bearing several fibrous or thickened roots.
Stems

simple or 1-branched, excluding flower-bearing branches, strongly angled or rounded, with sheathing, papery bracts proximally.
Leaves

alternate, sessile or perfoliate;

blade oblong-linear to oblong-ovate, membranaceous to leathery.
Inflorescences

1 per branch, terminal but appearing axillary;

peduncles pendent.
Flowers

perianth narrowly campanulate;

tepals promptly deciduous, imbricate, distinct, linear to narrowly oblong, apex obtuse or acute, nectariferous;

stamens distinct to weakly connate at perianth base;

filaments dimorphic, glabrous;

anthers linear-oblong, extrorse;

connectives present;

ovary superior, 3-locular, sessile or stipitate, rounded to sharply triangular;

style 1, 3-lobed;

stigmas 3, lobed, outwardly arching at maturity.
Fruits

capsular, greenish to yellowish brown, sessile or stipitate, leathery or submembranaceous, tardily dehiscent, dehiscence loculicidal.
Seeds

1–3 per locule, brownish red, globose to ovoid;

arils various.
x

= 6, 7.

Uvularia
Distribution
from USDA
e North America
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Species 5 (5 in the flora).

Uvularia, a genus of attractive, spring-blooming plants, has been divided into sect. Oakesiella (Small) Wilbur with sessile leaves and sect. Uvularia with perfoliate leaves. Differences in other morphological (R. L. Wilbur 1963) and cytological (F. H. Utech 1978d) characters support recognition of these infrageneric groups.

D. K. Wijesinghe and D. F. Whigham (1997, 2001) compared the different, below-ground, vegetative morphologies of three Uvularia species and their relationship to their differing clonal populations and dynamics.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Key
1. Stems rounded; leaf blades perfoliate, margins smooth; capsules obovoid to truncate; tepals smooth or densely papillose adaxially.
→ 2
1. Stems angled distally; leaf blades sessile, margins minutely papillose-denticulate; capsules generally ellipsoid; tepals smooth adaxially.
→ 3
2. Leaves pubescent (rarely glabrous) on abaxial veins; leaves below lowest branch typically 1; tepals smooth adaxially; capsule with 2 truncate beaks per lobe.
U. grandiflora
2. Leaves glaucous, smooth abaxially; leaves below lowest branch (2–)3–4; tepals orange-papillose adaxially; capsule with 2 attenuate beaks per lobe.
U. perfoliata
3. Rhizomes short, 0.5–1 cm, bearing numerous, clustered, fleshy roots; stem nodes and abaxial leaf veins puberulent.
U. puberula
3. Rhizomes elongate, 10–15 cm, bearing scattered, fibrous roots; stem nodes and abaxial leaf surfaces glabrous.
→ 4
4. Peduncles ebracteate; tepal apex rounded to acute; ovary and capsule stipitate.
U. sessilifolia
4. Peduncles bearing 1, ovate, leafy bract; tepal apex acuminate; ovary and capsule sessile or subsessile.
U. floridana
Source FNA vol. 26, p. 147. Authors: Frederick H. Utech, Shoichi Kawano.
Parent taxa Liliaceae
Subordinate taxa
U. floridana, U. grandiflora, U. perfoliata, U. puberula, U. sessilifolia
Synonyms Oakesia, Oakesiella
Name authority Linnaeus: Sp. Pl. 1: 304. (1753): Gen. Pl. ed. 5, 144. (1754)
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

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