Glandular Threadplant

Nemacladus glanduliferus Jepson, Man. Fl. PI. Calif. 975. 1925
Branches usually ascending and rather stiff, but occasionally loose and flexuous; plants 5-15 (25) cm. tall; stems pubescent below and sometimes in the axils of the bracts or essentially glabrous, dull or slightly lustrous, brownish or purplish, at least below; rosette-leaves few-20, usually oblanceolate but sometimes elliptic, usually obtuse at tip and narrowed gradually to a broadly winged base (leaves with elliptic blades often with a distinct slender petiole), the blades usually toothed (sometimes obscurely so) or pinnatifid, green to brownish or purplish when dry, 0.1-0.3 cm. wide by 0.3-1.6 cm. long, usually 3-6 times as long as wide, pubescence present near base only (on margins and upper side of blade) or almost wanting; seeds varying from cylindrical, with perfectly straight sides and truncate ends, to somewhat ellipsoid; length 0.6 mm. or less; each seed divided into 6-8 longitudinal ridges separated by sharply impressed lines; each longitudinal ridge divided by fine transverse lines into 15-20 (30?) narrow cross ridges.
Type locality: Wagon Wash near Sentenac Canyon, Colorado Desert, Sati Diego County, California, Jepson X766 (herb. Jepson!).
Plants diffuse, less than 5 cm. tall; known only from Baja
California. 66. N. glanduliferus var. aiislraiis.
Plants erect, seldom diffuse, 5-25 cm. tall; extreme northern Mexico and southwestern United States. Pedicels usually curved near the tip, the flower and fruit
erect; calyx-lobes (1.3) 1.5-2.5 (3.0) mm. long. 6a. N. glanduliferus a.r. glanduliferus.
Pedicels stiffly spreading-ascending, not or scarcely
curved; calyx-lobes 0.8-1.5 (2.3) mm. long. 6c. A^. glanduliferus var. orientalis.
6a. Nemacladus glanduliferus var. glanduliferus
McVaugh, var. nov.
Nemacladus glanduliferus Jepson, loc. cit., as to type.
Pedicels widely spreading at base, mostly leaving the stem at an angle of 60°-90°, often bowed upward near base, usually curved abruptly near tip so that the flower and fruit are stiffly erect; fruiting pedicels 7-13 mm. long, smooth and glabrous, slender but not capillary, distinctly thicker than a coarse human hair; flower-bracts linear to lanceolate, glabrous or ciliate on the margins, blunt at tip, 2-5 mm. long, flat or somewhat folded at base, often widespreading or reflexed and scarcely concealing (or even enfolding) the base of the pedicel; filament-tube 1.6-2.3 mm. long, glabrous, the tip curved; appendages apparently always lacking; anthers 0.2-0.35 mm. long; hypanthium in anthesis mostly broadly rounded at base, becoming hemispheric in fruit; capsule about half inferior or a little less, 2.0-2.3 mm. in diameter by 2.2-3.0 (4.0) mm. long, acute at tip; calyx-lobes linear or narrowly triangular, acute, (1.3) 1.5-2.5 (4.5) mm. long.
Distribution: Southern San Bernardino County, California, to northern Baja California, mostly in the Colorado Desert .
6b. Nemacladus glanduliferus var. australis (Munz) McVaugh, N
Am. Midi. Nat. 22: 540. 1939.
Xemacladus rigidus var. australis Munz, Am. Jour. Bot. 11: 242. 1924.
Differs from var. glanduliferus by its much stouter and shorter stems, which rarely exceed 5.0 cm. in height, by its more diffuse plant-body, its stouter pedicels and its somewhat larger capsules, which average 3.5-4.0 mm. in length; the staminal appendages are essentially like those of var. orientalis but with the terminal cells less sharply reflexed.
Type locality: Rosario, Baja California, C. R. Orcutt 134S (Gray!). Distribution: Vicinity of Rosario, Baja California.

Nemacladus glanduliferus is a species of flowering plant in the bellflower family known by the common name glandular threadplant. It is native to the southwestern United States and Baja California, where it grows in desert and plateau habitat. It is an annual herb producing a purplish or brownish green, branching stem up to about 25 centimeters tall. Small oval leaves occur at the base of the plant. The inflorescence is a series of zigzagging branches bearing occasional flowers on thin, erect pedicels. There is a single small bract at the base of each pedicel. The flower at the curved tip of the pedicel is just a few millimeters wide. There are five pointed sepals and five white corolla lobes, generally three in the upper lip and two in the lower.