Stickseeds of genus Lappula are entire-leaved, taprooted annuals or winter annuals or rarely biennials, reputedly short-lived perennial in some species outside our region. The flowers are borne in more or less conspicuously bracted, terminal clusters which may become elongate in age, the short individual flower stalks being erect or upward-curved in fruit. The calyx is cleft nearly or quite to the base. The corolla is blue or white, mostly small and relatively inconspicuous, more or less funnel-shaped, with definite fornices. The stamens are not protruding. The nutlets are usually surpassed by the style, narrowly attached to the elongate gynobase along the well-developed, middle inner keel (the lowermost part rounded and free). The nutlets bear one or more rows of prickles (which are barbed at tip) along the continuous dorsomarginal ridge or rounded and swollen border. The genus consists of about a dozen species worldwide, of wide distribution, mainly in the Northern Hemisphere. The name is a diminutive of the Latin lappa, a bur.
Guide to Identify Presented Species of Genus Lappula
FLOWERS UP TO 2.5 MM BROAD
L. occidentalis – Western Stickseed Stems simple or branched, 5-40 cm tall, short-stiff-hairy. Flowers white, 2-4 mm long and 1.5-2.5 mm wide, with yellow eye. Leaves numerous, up to about 6 cm long and 1 cm wide, stiff-hairy. Mostly dry areas.
