Microstachys chamaelea
(L.) Müll.Arg. in Linnaea 32: 95. 1893; Esser in Blumea 44: 176.
1999. Tragia chamaelea L., Sp. Pl. 981. 1753. Sebastiania chamaelea (L.) Müll.Arg. in DC.,
Prodr. 15(2): 1175. 1866; Hook.f., Fl. Brit. India 5: 475. 1866.
Mar.: Bhui-erandi.
Perennial herbs to subshrubs, erect or ascending, up to 75 cm high, with milky latex; branchlets angled, puberulous. Leaves linear-lanceolate to elliptic-lanceolate, cuneate at base, minutely crenulate-dentate along margins, acute or obtuse and apiculate at apex, 1.5 - 8 x 0.4 - 1 cm; lateral nerves 15 - 30 pairs; petioles up to 3 mm long; stipules 0.5 – 2 x 0.2 – 0.5 mm, densely pilose. Inflorescences up to 3 cm long; flowers spirally arranged; bracts triangular to lanceolate. Male flowers: ca 1.5 mm across; bracts minute, completely covered by glands; calyx 5-lobed; lobes ovate, fimbriate, 1.5 - 2 mm long; stamens 3, exserted. Female flowers: solitary, axillary in upper leaf-axils or below the male flowers in the spikes, ca 1 mm across; calyx-lobes 3, ovate; ovary 3-lobed, echinate; styles 3, shortly connate, spreading, ca 2.5 mm long. Fruits ellipsoid, 3-lobed, with 2 vertical rows of soft prickles, 4 - 5 mm across, light green with a flush of red between warts; seeds oblong-ellipsoid, barrel-shaped with parallel sides, truncate at base, rounded at apex, ca 2.5 x 2 mm, brown, yellowish mottled.
Fl. & Fr. Throughout the year.
Distrib. India: A weed in cultivated land, fallow fields, on thin layer of soils on rocky places and often as forest undergrowth, roadsides, grasslands, from sandy beaches to hills, up to 1200 m altitude. Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Andaman Islands.
Perennial herbs to subshrubs, erect or ascending, up to 75 cm high, with milky latex; branchlets angled, puberulous. Leaves linear-lanceolate to elliptic-lanceolate, cuneate at base, minutely crenulate-dentate along margins, acute or obtuse and apiculate at apex, 1.5 - 8 x 0.4 - 1 cm; lateral nerves 15 - 30 pairs; petioles up to 3 mm long; stipules 0.5 – 2 x 0.2 – 0.5 mm, densely pilose. Inflorescences up to 3 cm long; flowers spirally arranged; bracts triangular to lanceolate. Male flowers: ca 1.5 mm across; bracts minute, completely covered by glands; calyx 5-lobed; lobes ovate, fimbriate, 1.5 - 2 mm long; stamens 3, exserted. Female flowers: solitary, axillary in upper leaf-axils or below the male flowers in the spikes, ca 1 mm across; calyx-lobes 3, ovate; ovary 3-lobed, echinate; styles 3, shortly connate, spreading, ca 2.5 mm long. Fruits ellipsoid, 3-lobed, with 2 vertical rows of soft prickles, 4 - 5 mm across, light green with a flush of red between warts; seeds oblong-ellipsoid, barrel-shaped with parallel sides, truncate at base, rounded at apex, ca 2.5 x 2 mm, brown, yellowish mottled.
Fl. & Fr. Throughout the year.
Distrib. India: A weed in cultivated land, fallow fields, on thin layer of soils on rocky places and often as forest undergrowth, roadsides, grasslands, from sandy beaches to hills, up to 1200 m altitude. Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Andaman Islands.
