Leaves ovate (egg-shaped, wider toward base) or obovate (egg-shaped but wider at the tip) in the lower part of the plant but narrower higher up. Axillary fascicles (bunches of small leaves on small stems coming out of the axil, or angle between the main stem and the main leaf. Leaf margins are entire (smooth) but rolled under. Leaves are ~0.4-4 cm long. Leaf texture is somewhat sclerophyllous (leathery) and waxy and sometimes somewhat fleshy, and may be either glabrous (smooth) or densely hairy (as are the stems). The leaves, thus, range in color from bright green to silvery green depending on the degree of pubescence. Inflorescences are cymes, or flat-topped flower clusters, which come out of axils on the upper parts of the plant. The flower has a cylindrical calyx tube ~4-9 mm long, the sepals linear and fused parallel to one another. There are usually 5 petals ~4-14 mm long, pink, dark pink, or blue lavender. There are 5-6 slender white stamens exserted (sticking out) past the petals, ending in violet or purple anthers (pollen- bearing structures). Blooms from June through October. Fruit is a ~3-5 mm capsule that splits open to release 1-20 small (1-1.5 mm) oval cream to yellow-brown seeds. Plant is a subshrub, or a perennial plant with a woody base and herbaceous stem growth each year over the perennial woody base. The plant is capable of drought deciduousness, so it may look bare and dead in the summer. Dead stems are retained all year, giving the plant a very twiggy appearance. Stems are both erect and prostrate (leaning back, touching the ground). The plant is quite short, growing to ~0.1-0.6 m in height but it sprawls laterally up to 3 m across. Plant favors alkaline soils, and it deals with salts by excreting them through specialized salt glands in its epidermis. At night and in the early morning, there will be a salty solution on the surface, which dries into fine salt crystals in the heat of day. The plant, then, has a salty taste (be certain of the identity of any plant before tasting!). With this adaptation, it is commonly found on the coast itself in salt marshes. It is also seen in riparian wetlands, but it can also sometimes be found in inland alkali flats, under 750 m in elevation. Its range runs along the central and southern coast of California, including the Channel Islands, the interior valleys of Southern California, the Great Central Valley, and the Mojave and Great Basin deserts into Nevada, Mexico, and South America.
Frankenia salina aka F. grandiflora aka Ocimum salinum (Frankeniaceae): alkali heath or alkali seaheath or yerba ruema
The development of this key was partially funded through the Geoscience Diversity Enhancement Program (Award #0703798) and through a course of re-assigned time provided by the CSULB Scholarly and Creative Activities Committee. Thanks also to the students in sections of biogeography, introductory physical geography, GDEP, and LSAMP for "test-driving" various editions of this key.