Valley Ringstem

Herbs, stout perennial. Stems 0.5-2 m. Leaves: 4-6 pairs proximal to inflorescence; petiole 1-7 cm; blade broadly ovate to almost reniform, 2-10 × 2-9.5 cm, base broadly rounded to truncate or cordate, apex rounded to broadly obtuse, adaxial surface yellow-green, abaxial surface much paler, both surfaces moderately villous-hirsute, hairs with dark brown to blackish pustulate bases. Flowers 5-15 in umbel-like clusters on branches of inflorescence; perianth 9-10 mm, tube very pale pink to rose-pink, densely shaggy-hairy, limbs very pale pink to rose-pink, gradually flared; stamens 3, exserted 1-2 mm. Fruits broadly fusiform, 3.5-6 × 2.1-2.7 mm, not secreting mucilage when wetted; ribs 10, well defined, linear, low, narrow; equatorial ridge absent or occasionally low, linear, and incomplete. 2n = 24.

Calif.

Flowering late winter-late summer, occasionally mid fall.

Dry, gravelly outwash fans, talus slopes, roadsides; 70-1200m.

Boerhavia annulata Coville, Contr. U.S. Natl. Herb. 4: 177, plate 18. 1893