Byttneria herbacea Roxb., Pl. Corom.1: t. 29,1795; Masters in Fl. Brit. India 1: 376. 1874.

Herbs, prostrate or ascending, sparsely branched, umarmed, with perennial root stock; stems angular when young, terete with age, stellate-tomentose. Leaves 1.5 - 7 x 1 - 3 cm, ovate, oblong, ovate-lanceolate to lanceolate, obtuse, rounded or subcordato at base, acute or acuminate at apex, irregularly dentate, sparsely hairy, more so along margins and vcins; 3 - 5-nerved at base; petioles 2 - 3.2 cm long, slender, pubescent; stipules 2 mm long, subulate, equalling petioles. Flowers 2 - 3 in cymes arising from short axillary 1 cm long peduncles; pedicels ca 4 mm long, subulate; bracts 2 - 6, 1 - 2 mm long. Sepals up to 4 x 1.5 mm, connate at base, narrowly ovate-lanceolate, long acuminate, 3-nerved, sparsely tomentose outside, reflexed. Petals maroon coloured, up to 5 mm long, puberulous, claw slender, limb subulate with hood and 2-fid appendages which enter inside the staminal cup covering the stamens. Stamens in inner series of the staminal cup; anther lobes reniform, divergent; staminodes ovate, acute. Ovary 1 mm in diam., 5-loculed, sparsely hairy; styles 1 mm long, terete; stigmas lobed. Capsules globose, septicidally 5-valved, shortly prickly, apically horned. Seeds 1 in each locule, 3 x 2 mm, flat, muricate.

Fl. & Fr. Throughout the year

Distrib. India: An undergrowth in deciduous forests and shady places. Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Nagaland, West Bengal, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.

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