Tragia hispida Willd., Sp. Pl. ed. 4, 4: 323. 1805; Pax & K. Hoffm. in Engl., Pflanzenr. IV.147.ix-xi (heft 68): 79. 1919, p. p., excl. syn. T. involucrata var. angustifolia Hook.f.; Bennet, Fl. Howrah Dist. 210. 1979, p. p., excl. syn. T. involucrata var. angustifolia Hook.f.; Chakrab. & N.P.Balakr. in Rheedea 16: 18. 2006; N.P.Balakr. & Chakrab., Fam. Euphorb. India 181. 2007. T. involucrata L. var. hispida (Willd.) Müll.Arg. in DC., Prodr. 15(2): 943. 1866. T. involucrata sensu Duthie, Fl. Gangetic Plain 2: 114. 1905, p. p., non L. 1753.

Climbers (noted up to 1 m high), trailing or twining, hispid with stinging hairs; young shoots densely hispid or hirsute; branches scattered hirsute. Leaves lanceolate to oblonglanceolate, cordate or narrowly so at base, entire or with 2 – 3 teeth towards base or remotely serrate or serrulate at the basal half along margins, attenuate to attenuate-caudate at apex, 5 – 15 x 1 – 5 cm, membranous to chartaceous, scattered appressed hispid above and beneath, 3- nerved at base; lateral nerves 4 – 8 per side above the basal, brochidodromous; petioles 5 – 20 mm long, densely hirsute or hispid; stipules linear-lanceolate, 3 – 5 mm long, caducous. Racemes 5 – 18 cm long; peduncles 2 – 9 cm long; bracts linear, subulate or lanceolate or ovate (in female), 2 – 3 mm long. Male flowers: pedicels 0.5 – 1 mm long; sepals suborbicular, ca 1.5 mm across; stamens 3; filaments ca 0.3 mm long, united at base; anthers oblong to suborbicular, ca 0.4 mm long/across. Female flowers: subsessile; sepals 6, 4 – 6 mm long, pinnate-fimbriate; ovary subglobose, ca 2 mm in diam., hispid; styles ca 2.5 mm long. Fruits subsessile, depressed, deeply 3-lobed, 3 – 4 x 10 – 12 mm, scattered hirsute or hispid; fruiting sepals 8 – 10 x 6 – 8 mm (including lobes); main body of sepals oblong to linear, densely fulvous hispid to subglabrous outside, hirsute or sparsely hispid to glabrous inside; lobes of sepals 4 – 8 per side, linear to filiform, 2 – 6 mm long, often arching, densely fulvous hispid or hirsute.

Fl. & Fr. Aug. – March.

Distrib. India: Along thickets and scrubs, occasionally trailing on ground. Uttarakhand, Bihar, West Bengal and Assam.

Bangladesh.

Notes. A rare species, noted to be common only at Mourigram of Howrah district and Kalyani of Nadia district in West Bengal in shrubberies and along railway track.