Curtiss’s primrose-willow

Ludwigia spathulifolia Small

Herbs rarely creeping and rooting at nodes, stolons usu­ally absent. Stems erect or ascending at base, very rarely prostrate, unbranched to well branched, branches sometimes very slender, 15–75 cm, gla­brous, with slightly raised lines decurrent from leaf axils. Leaves alternate; stipules reddish purple, narrowly ovate, 0.2–0.3 × 0.1–0.3 mm, succulent; petiole winged, 0.3–1.2 cm, blade usually oblanceolate-spatulate to spatulate or oblanceolate, rarely sublinear, 1–2.5(–3) × 0.1–0.8 cm, base attenuate, margins subentire with hydathodal glands, apex acute or mucronate, surfaces glabrous; bracts not reduced. Inflorescences usually not congested, leafy racemes or spikes, flowers solitary in leaf axils; bracteoles attached in opposite pairs near base of ovary, narrowly lanceolate, lanceolate-elliptic, or oblong-linear, 1.5–3.5(–4) × 0.4–0.8 mm, swollen at base, apex acuminate. Flowers: sepals ascending, green fading to white near base, ovate-deltate, 1.5–3 × 1.2–2 mm, margins entire, apex narrowly acute or acuminate, surfaces glabrous; petals 0(–3), narrowly elliptic or spatulate, 1–2.5 × 0.5–1 mm, base attenuate, apex obtuse; filaments pale yellow, 0.8–1(–1.3) mm, anthers 0.3–0.6 × 0.3–0.5 mm; pollen shed singly; ovary obovate-obpyramidal, 2–2.5 × 1.8–2.3 mm, glabrous; nectary disc elevated 0.3–0.4 mm on ovary apex, green, 0.9–1.6 mm diam., prominently 4-lobed, glabrous; style pale green, 0.4–0.7 mm, glabrous, stigma pale yellow, subglobose, 0.3–0.4 × 0.2–0.4 mm, not exserted beyond anthers. Capsules obconic, obscurely 4-angled, (2–)2.5–4(–4.7) × 2–3(–3.5) mm, hard-walled, dehiscent by loculicidal slits, pedicel 0.1–0.5 mm. Seeds light brown, ellipsoid, 0.4–0.6 × 0.3–0.4 mm, surface cells transversely elongate, glabrous or, sometimes, with surface wax that mimics appressed hairs. 2n = 64.

Flowering Mar–Nov (year-round). Pine savannas and flatwoods, marshes, edges of ponds and streams, sandy or peaty swales, limestone prairies, solution pits on limestone; 0–50 m; Fla.; West Indies (Bahamas).

Ludwigia curtissii is the only octoploid (n = 32) in sect. Isnardia, and is restricted to peninsular Florida and the Bahamas. It and L. simpsonii they are the only members of the section that do not form true stolons; instead they simply sprout new shoots from the base. The two species are similar in many ways and appear to share three genomes (C. I. Peng 1988).