Valerianella radiata (L.) Dufr., beaked cornsalad. Annual, taprooted, not rosetted, 1(—several)–stemmed at base, with flat–topped flowering canopy ascending to erect, in range 20—40 cm tall; shoots with 1—3 nodes of petiolate basal leaves (soon withered) and widely spaced pairs of cauline leaves, in a pair of cauline leaf bases touching or somewhat fused, in canopy inflorescence branches ± equally forked, glabrate with minute, bristly hairs mostly confined to blade margins and stem ridges.
Stems 6–ridged, to 5 mm diameter, with 3 ridges, 1 descending from blade midrib and a pair of ridges descending from basal edges of the touching leaf blades, internodes to 85 mm long.
Leaves opposite decussate, simple, petiolate (basal leaves and lower cauline leaves) and sessile (cauline leaves), without stipules; petiole flat and winglike, to 5 mm long but indistinct from blade, flared at base, midvein raised on lower side; blade of basal oblanceolate to spatulate, long–tapered at base, entire and bristly short–ciliate on margins, rounded at tip, pinnately veined with midrib sunken on upper surface and raised on lower surface; blade of sessile lower cauline leaves oblanceolate, long–tapered at base, blades of lower cauline leaves oblong, in range to 80 × 18 mm, decreasing upward to ovate with clasping, often subcordate bases and palmately veined, lower surface with occasional short hairs.
Inflorescence dichasial cyme, terminal, repeatedly 2–forked with leaflike pair of bracts at lower nodes decreasing upward, forming 2 or 4 headlike clusters paired at top of plant, each condensed of opposite decussate branchlets, flat–topped, many–flowered, bracteate, essentially glabrous; peduncle above foliage stemlike conspicuously, narrowly 2–ridged on opposite sides descending from contact of bracts, to 40 mm long, green, with stiff short hairs along ridges; bract subtending branches at first node ovate, 6—20 × 4.8—12.5 mm, broadly tapered at base, with 1—3 pairs of serrate teeth below midblade or entire on margins, rounded to acute at tip, sometimes with very narrow membranous margins below midblade, palmately veined; internode above first fork stemlike, to 50 mm long, narrowly 2–ridged on opposite side or with other faint ridges; bracts in pair at second node narrowly ovate, to 10 × 6 mm, entire or sometimes with a pair of teeth at base; axes above second node to 20 mm long; bracts in pair at third node elliptic to oblong, to 5 × 2 mm and sometimes unequal in pair; axes above third node ca. 2.5 mm long, successive axes and bracts and bractlets decreasing in dense cluster in series to short and lanceolate at the youngest bud and 1–veined, each cluster with a terminal flower flanked with a pair of branchlets at base and each headlike cluster typically rectangular in face view and 8 × 4 mm with 20+ flowers.
Flower bisexual, ± radial, 1.5—2 mm across; calyx obscure, = rim on top of ovary < 0.2 mm long, green, lower edge longer than upper edge, puberulent; corolla 5–lobed, in range ca. 2 mm long; tube narrowly funnel–shaped, ca. 0.7 × 0.3 mm, white; throat wider funnel–shaped to bell–shaped, ca. 0.7 × 0.5—0.7 mm, white; lobes spreading, subequal, rounded to rounded–obtuse, 0.5—0.7 × 0.45—0.6 mm, pink to rose–pink (white); stamens 3, attached at midpoint of corolla; filaments ascending, 0.9—1.5 mm long, pale pink (white); anthers exserted, dorsifixed, dithecal, 0.35—0.4 mm long, pink (white), longitudinally dehiscent; pollen pale pink or white; pistil 1, 3.5 mm long; ovary inferior, 3–sided ovoid, ca. 1.5 × 0.7 mm, green, puberulent, 3–chambered, only 1 chamber (wide chamber on lower side) with 1 ovule; style erect, exserted or not above anthers and curved toward the longest stamen, white; stigma lobes 3, terminal, ± 0.3 mm long, colorless and papillate.
Fruit achenelike, of 2 empty chambers and the third chamber with 1 loose seed above midpoint, elliptic in outline, 1.8—2.3 × 1.3—1.8 mm (many sterile), tan to light brown, having 2 inflated chambers and with short peak (“beak”) above the flatter, fertile chamber, glabrous at maturity.
A. C. Gibson