MELLITULUM  Rose 1911

Distribution : Mexico (Chihuahua)

Description (by 't Hart & Bleij in IHSP, 2003) :

Tufted glabrous perennial herbs with a short rootstock and slightly roughened stems, much branched at the base, 5 – 10 cm tall.

Leaves alternate, linear to oblong, obtuse, terete, 3 – 8 mm, bright green, spreading; flowering branches erect or decumbent.

Inflorescences open spreading few-flowered cymes, pedicels 2 – 3 mm.

Flowers 5- (to 6-) merous, sepals broadly sessile, nearly free to the base, unequal, lanceolate to oblong, obtuse, 2.5 – 4 mm, petals free or nearly free to the base, suboblong, acute, broadly and shortly mucronate, white, 4 – 5 mm, widely spreading, filaments white, anthers brownish.

Cytology : 2n = 36, 38, 100 ± 1, 132 ± 2, 160 – 168, ± 168, 190.