Key to Wisconsin Phlox

Author: Jeff Rose

• 1a.Plants matted or tufted; corolla lobes bifid; pistil as long as the corolla tube 2

• 1b.Plants caulescent (although some species are stoloniferous); corolla lobes rounded or apiculate; pistil as long as or much shorter than the corolla tube 3

• 2a.Hairs glandular; leaves 1.0–4.0 cm long, longer on sterile shoots, pubescent on the margin and both surfaces of the lamina; notch of the corolla lobes 3–6 mm deep P. bifida

• 2b.Hairs eglandular; leaves 0.8–2 cm long, similar in length on fertile and sterile shoots glabrous or if pubescent, only so on the margin; notch of the corolla lobes 0.5–2 mm deep P. subulata

• 3a.Stem, leaves, calyx, and corolla tube glabrous P. glaberrima

• 3b.Upper stem and usually also leaves pubescent (at least on the margin); calyx pubescent; corolla tube glabrous or pubescent 4

• 4a.Cauline leaves ovate, with clearly anasmotising lateral veins; pistil as long as the corolla tube P. paniculata

• 4b.Cauline leaves ovate to linear, lateral veins indistinct; pistil much shorter than the corolla tube 5

• 5a.Plants stoloniferous; cauline leaves ovate; calyx hairs glandular; corollas lavender blue to white, sometimes with a whitish “eye”, tube glabrous P. divaricata

• 5b.Plants not stoloniferous; cauline leaves linear or narrowly lanceolate; calyx hairs eglandular (except in a rare subspecies); corollas pink or white, usually with distinctively darker nectar guides, tube pubescent P. pilosa