This key includes several genera that do not occur in northern Utah, not even in greenhouses. They do occur in the Pacific Northwest.
| 1 | Leaves small and narrow (1-5 mm wide, 1-3 cm long), forming a basal cluster; plants caespitose | ||||||
| 2 | Plants annual; flowers white to cream-colored, 4-7 mm long, much shorter than the pedicels | Androsace |
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| 2 | Plants perennial; flowers pink, red, or purple, 7-15 mm long, usually longer than their pedicels | Douglasia |
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| 1 | Leaves wider or longer or not in a basal cluster | ||||||
| 3 | Plants scapose, i.e., leaves in a basal cluster and peduncles leafless | ||||||
| 4 | Lobes of the corolla shorter than or little longer than the tube and spreading, the corolla salverform | ||||||
| 4 | Lobes of the corolla several times longer than the tube and sharply reflexed | ||||||
| 5 | Stamens completely exserted beyond the corolla tube | ||||||
| 5 | Stamens
included in the corolla tube, not or scarcely visible without dissection |
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| 3 | Plants not scapose, leaves present on the flowering stems | ||||||
| 6 | Flowers sessile in the leaf axils | ||||||
| 7 | Corolla absent but the sepals petalloid; plants perennial; capsules valvate | Glaux |
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| 7 | Corolla present; plants annual; capsules circumscissile | Centunculus |
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| 6 | Flowers pedicellate, often terminal | ||||||
| 8 | Plants annual, prostrate; capsules circumscissile; flowers red, pink, or blue | ||||||
| 8 | Plants perennial, usually erect; capsules valvate; flowers yellow | ||||||
| 9 | Staminodes present between the stamens; flowers solitary in the leaf axils, the corolla lobes not purple-dotted or streaked | Steironema |
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| 9 | Staminodes not present; flowers racemose or solitary in the leaf axils, the corolla lobes often purple-dotted or streaked | Lysimachia |
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