Tricardia

{{Short description|Genus of plants}} {{speciesbox |image = Tricardia watsonii.jpg |display_parents = 2 |genus = Tricardia |parent_authority = Torr. ex S.Watson |species = watsonii |authority = Torr. ex S.Watson<ref name=WFO_4000038901/> }}

'''''Tricardia''''' is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the family Hydrophyllaceae containing the single species '''''Tricardia watsonii'''''.<ref name=WFO_4000038901>{{Cite WFO |title=''Tricardia'' Torr. ex S.Watson |id=4000038901 |access-date=2025-12-24}}</ref> The species is known by the common name '''threehearts'''.<ref>{{PLANTS|id=TRWA2|taxon=Tricardia watsonii|accessdate=14 December 2015}}</ref> It is native to the southwestern United States, where it grows in deserts and mountains in sandy open habitat, often beneath shrubs. It is a perennial herb growing from a taproot and a woody caudex covered with the shreddy remains of previous seasons' herbage. It produces several erect stems up to about 40 centimeters tall. Most of the leaves are located in a basal rosette about the caudex. They are lance-shaped and coated thinly in woolly hairs. They are up to 9 centimeters long and are borne on petioles. A few smaller leaves occur higher on the stem. Flowers occur in a loose cyme at the top of the stem. Each has a calyx of five sepals. The outer three are heart-shaped and green to pink or purple in color, and the inner two are much smaller and narrower. The flower within is bell-shaped, white with central purple markings, and roughly half a centimeter wide. The fruit is a capsule just under a centimeter long which contains 4 to 8 seeds.

==References== {{Reflist}}

==External links== * [http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/get_JM_treatment.pl?4518,4720,4721 Jepson Manual Treatment] * [http://www.azgfd.gov/w_c/edits/documents/Tricwats.d_001.pdf Arizona Game & Fish Profile] * [http://calphotos.berkeley.edu/cgi/img_query?query_src=photos_index&where-taxon=Tricardia+watsonii Photo gallery]

Category:Hydrophyllaceae Category:Monotypic Boraginales genera Category:Flora of the United States