Polygonella polygama Engelm. & Gray

Subshrubs, perennial, dioecious, 1.5-7 dm. Stems erect or decumbent, usually branched proximally and distally, glabrous or minutely pubescent. Leaves persistent; ocrea margins not ciliate; blade linear to narrowly clavate or broadly spatulate, (3-)4-16(-36) × (0.3-)0.6-3.6(-5) mm, base barely tapered to attenuate, margins hyaline at least along distal 1/ 2, apex obtuse, glabrous. Inflorescences (2-)4-20(-33) mm; ocreola encircling rachis, only the base adnate to rachis, apex acute to acuminate. Pedicels spreading in anthesis, spreading to reflexed in fruit, 0.2-0.9 mm, as long or much longer than subtending ocreola. Flowers functionally unisexual; filaments dimorphic; anthers pink, orange, or yellow; styles and stigma ca. 0.1 mm in anthesis. Staminate flowers: outer tepals loosely appressed in anthesis, reflexed in fruit, white, broadly elliptic, 0.9-1.8 mm in anthesis, margins entire; inner tepals appressed in anthesis and fruit, white, elliptic, 0.9-1.7 mm in anthesis, margins entire. Pistillate flowers: outer tepals loosely appressed in anthesis, usually reflexed in fruit, white to pink, often drying yellow, broadly elliptic to ovate, 0.5-1.3 mm in anthesis, margins entire; inner tepals appressed in anthesis and fruit, white to pink, often drying yellow or red, broadly elliptic to ovate, 0.6-1.5 mm in anthesis, margins entire. Achenes mostly included, brown to yellow-brown, 3-gonous, 1.3-2.1 × 0.7-1.2 mm, shiny, smooth. 2n = 28.