Silvery Nailwort

Plants of Paronychia argyrocoma with glabrous or barely scabrous leaves and glabrous sepal awns have sometimes been recognized as var. albimontana. They are found in both the southern and northern areas of the species range, but, curiously, not in the central portion (M. N. Chaudhri 1968).

Plants perennial, matted; caudex woody. Stems prostrate to ascending, much-branched, 5-60 cm, often retrorsely pubescent on 1 side. Leaves: stipules lanceolate, 2.5-8 mm, apex acute, entire; blade linear to linear-lanceolate or -oblanceolate, 5-30 × 0.5-2 mm, leathery, apex acute, often mucronate, sparsely appressed-pubescent. Cymes terminal, 15-25+-flowered, very compact, forming conspicuous glomerules 10-20 mm wide. Flowers 5-merous, short-cylindric to ovoid, with enlarged hypanthium and calyx cylindric to tapering distally, 3.5-6.5 mm, pubescent with antrorse, slightly spreading, silky hairs; sepals greenish to brownish, veins 3, obscure, ribs absent, narrowly lanceolate, 2-3.2 mm, leathery to rigid, margins translucent, ca. 0.1 mm wide, scarious, apex terminated by awn, hood narrowly triangular, awn straight to slightly divergent, white, 0.9-2 mm, scabrous, spinose; staminodes narrowly triangular, 0.4-0.6 mm; style 1, cleft in distal 6, 1.4-2 mm. Utricles oblong, 1.5-1.8 mm, smooth, pubescent distally.

Ga., Ky., Maine, Md., Mass., N.H., N.C., Tenn., Vt., Va., W.Va.

Flowering spring-early fall.

On or among rocks; 200-1800m.

Anychia argyrocoma Michaux, Fl. Bor.-Amer. 1: 113. 1803; Paronychia argyrocoma subsp. albimontana (Fernald) Maguire; P. argyrocoma var. albimontana Fernald

Paronychia argyrocoma, the silvery nailwort, is a plant species native to the eastern United States. It has a disjunct distribution, found in New England (Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts) and the Appalachian Mountains of the Southeast (Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia and Maryland) but not from New York, New Jersey or Pennsylvania in between. The species grows on rocky sites at elevations of 200–1800 m.

Paronychia argyrocoma is a perennial herb with a woody caudex, forming mats covering significant areas of ground. Stems are prostrate to ascending, highly branched, up to 60 cm long. Leaves are leathery, lanceolate, up to 3 cm long. Flowers are borne in glomerules (clumps) of up to 25 flowers, each greenish-brown and covered with long silky hairs and spines on the calyx lobes.