Home
Herbs perennial. Roots vertical, large, to 1 cm in diam. Stems erect, 40-80(-120) cm tall, usually branched above, glabrous, grooved. Basal leaves shortly petiolate, lanceolate or narrowly lanceolate, 10-18 × 1.5-4 cm, glabrous or indistinctly papillose along veins below, base cuneate, margin crisped, occasionally nearly flat and entire, apex acute; cauline leaves shortly petiolate or nearly sessile, narrowly lanceolate, small; ocrea fugacious, membranous. Inflorescence paniculate, narrow. Flowers bisexual, dense. Pedicel slender, articulate below middle (in proximal third). Inner tepals enlarged in fruit; valves triangular, 3-4(-5) mm × ca. 3.5 mm, all valves with narrowly ovate tubercles, base truncate to indistinctly cordate, margin denticulate, apex acute; denticles 0.5-1.5 mm, 4-10 at each side. Achenes brown, shiny, ellipsoid, 2.5-3 mm, sharply trigonous, base narrow, apex acute. Fl. May-Jun, fr. Jun-Aug. 2n = 20, 22, 60.
A related European halophyte rarely adventive with us, will key here. It differs in its often less strongly crisped lvs and especially in the numerous small but distinct teeth along the margins of the valves.
