Skyflower

Nama corymbosa (J. Macbride ex Elliott) Kuntze

Herbs, erect, to 6 dm, un­branched or with short repro­ductive branches. Stems green, brown, or purple, densely pubescent, without glandular tri­chomes; thorns rare, 1 per node or absent, 4–11 × 0.2–0.6 mm. Leaf blades lanceolate, 2–5.5 × 0.3–1 cm, base acute to rounded, margins serrulate, surfaces glabrous or pubescent. Inflorescences terminal, leafy panicles or corymbs, 15–30-flowered. Flowers: sepals lanceolate, 4.5–7 × 1–2 mm, hispid-hirsute, with glandular tri­chomes; corolla blue, petals 10–15 × 5–8 mm; ovary glabrous or puberulent, upper 1/2 often with glandular trichomes; styles 2, 5–10 mm, glandular-pubescent toward bases. Capsules globose to slightly ovoid, 3–4.5 × 2.5–4 mm, upper 1/2 puberulent or glandular-pubescent. Seeds broadly ovoid, symmetric, 0.6–0.7 × 0.3–0.4 mm.

Flowering Jul–Sep. Wet roadsides and ditches; 0–20 m; Fla., Ga., S.C.

Hydrolea corymbosa is morphologically very similar to the more western H. ovata, sharing the paniculate or corymbose type of inflorescence and similar stem and sepal pubescence. However, H. corymbosa is a much smaller and more slender plant with fewer (if any) thorns, stems that are dark brown or purple, and lanceolate leaves.