5. Sabatia Adanson, Fam. Pl. 2: 503. 1763.
Marsh- or sea-pink, rose-gentian [For Liberato Sabbati, ca. 1714–ca. 1779, Italian botanist and physician]
James S. Pringle
Lapithea Grisebach
Herbs annual, biennial, or perennial, perennials sometimes stoloniferous, individual crowns then sometimes biennial; chlorophyllous, glabrous. Leaves cauline, opposite, often also basal. Inflorescences cymes, thyrses, heads, or paired or solitary flowers, cymes dichasial in species with opposite branching, monochasial in species with alternate branching. Flowers (4–)5–12(–14)-merous; calyx tube urceolate, campanulate, or obconic, lobes longer or shorter than tube; corolla pink, purplish pink, cream, or white, often with an adaxial yellow, yellowish green, or white eye encompassing the corolla tube and extending into the proximal parts of the lobes, rotate, glabrous, lobes much longer than tube, entire, plicae between lobes absent; stamens inserted in or immediately below (species 1–14, 17–20) or slightly but distinctly below (species 15 and 16) the corolla sinuses; anthers straight, recurved or recoiling circinately or curving or twisting helically, distinct; ovary sessile; style deciduous, initially deflexed to one side or less often erect, distinct, 2-cleft; stigmas 2, styles and stigmas often coiling helically; nectaries 5 at base of ovary, not clearly differentiated. Capsules cylindric to ovoid or globose. x = 7; aneuploidy common.
Species 21 (20 in the flora): North America, n Mexico, West Indies; temperate to subtropical areas.
The orthographic variant Sabbatia has been widely used for those names cited here that were published during the nineteenth century and still later by G. C. Druce and J. K. Small. The spelling Sabatia was an intentional Latinization by M. Adanson and must be retained.
Sabatia capitata and S. gentianoides have sometimes been segregated as the genus Lapithea or as Sabatia sect. Pseudochironia Grisebach, distinguished by sessile rather than pedicellate flowers and merely curved rather than coiling anthers. These species further differ from the other species of Sabatia in having the filaments inserted slightly but distinctly below, rather than in, the sinuses of the corolla. Molecular phylogenetic studies by K. G. Mathews et al. (2015) confirm the close relationship of these species to each other but support their retention in Sabatia.
Most species of Sabatia are protandrous and outbreeding. In most of the outbreeding species the styles are deeply cleft and the stigmas are linear, appearing as continuations of the style branches. Initially, these combinations of style branches and stigmas are helically coiled around each other and are deflexed to one side, while the stamen filaments are erect and the anthers are straight. Later, the style becomes erect and its branches uncoil and diverge, exposing the stigmatic surfaces, and the stamens diverge radially. The anthers coil or at least recurve circinately upon or following dehiscence. In S. capitata and S. gentianoides the style branch-stigma combinations are widely oblanceolate and are scarcely coiled at any stage, and the anthers remain straight or are slightly coiled helically after dehiscence. Sabatia arenicola and S. calycina have relatively small, homogamous flowers and are generally autogamous. In these species the style is not deflexed at anthesis. It and the stigmas, which are already receptive when the pollen is shed, are scarcely or not coiled until after pollination occurs. The anthers remain straight or nearly so after dehiscence (J. D. Perry 1971).
Great variation in plant and flower size occurs within Sabatia species, especially in the annuals and biennials. This variation is due to environmental factors, including shade, soil moisture, and the interaction of photoperiod with receding water levels or other conditions permitting seed germination (J. D. Perry 1971).
Stems of Sabatia species may be terete or four-angled. If the stems are angled, narrow wings may extend from the apex of the angles. Calyx tubes described here as campanulate or hemispheric are rounded at the base, whereas those described as obconic (or turbinate in some literature, for example, R. L. Wilbur 1955) taper at the base. Some species are intermediate in this respect. Pedicel length in this treatment refers to the true pedicels beyond the most distal pair of bractlets, which may be minute, and the calyx, rather than to the ultimate divisions of the inflorescence.
SELECTED REFERENCES Blake, S. F. 1915. Notes on the genus Sabatia. Rhodora 17: 50–57. Mathews, K. G., M. S. Ruigrok, and G. Mansion. 2015. Phylogeny and biogeography of the eastern North American rose gentians (Sabatia, Gentianaceae). Syst. Bot. 40: 81–85. Perry, J. D. 1971. Biosystematic studies in the North American genus Sabatia (Gentianaceae). Rhodora 73: 309–369. Wilbur, R. L. 1955. A revision of the North American genus Sabatia (Gentianaceae). Rhodora 57: 1–33, 43–71, 78–104.
