Sparse-leafed Moonpod (Acleisanthes lanceolata)

   

Overview, lance-leaf moonpod, Guadalupe Mountains, NM. Photograph by Wynn Anderson.

 

Chasmogamous and cleistogamous flowers, NM, Photographs by Wynn Anderson.

• Common English Names: Lance-leaf Moonpod
• Common Spanish Names: None known.
• Scientific Name: Acleisanthes lanceolata (a-kly-SAN-thes lan-cee-oh-LAY-tuh)(formerly Selinocarpus)
• Family: Nyctaginaceae (Four O'Clock Family)
• Geographic Range: Gypseous soils in New Mexico, West Texas, and south in Chihuahua, Mexico.
• Description: Erect to decumbent semi-shrubby (suffrutescent) perennial herb rising from a gnarly, woody base often crowed by previous year dried stems. Leaves are rather numerous, lanceolate to ovate and often crowded and overlapping up the stems. Flowers are solitary at stem tips, and are usually cleistogamous (closed and self pollinating) but, when present, chasmogamous flowers are tubular to 1.5 inches long, pale yellow-green, sometimes pink tinged, and with a cream to pale yellow terminal flare. Fruit are small with short, notably translucent wings.
• Notes: As with many species of the Four-O'clock Family, this plant can have either or both visible pollinator-attracting chasmogamous flowers and small, greenish self-fertilizing cleistogamous flowers.

Last Update: 30 Sep 2013