Species: Mollugo stricta
English Name: Indian Chickweed
Chinese Name: 粟米草
Family: Molluginaceae
Description:
Herbs diffuse, 10-30 cm. Stems ascending, slender, much branched, angled, glabrous, when old often reddish brown. Leaves in pseudowhorls of 3-5 or opposite; petiole short or leaves subsessile; leaf blade lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, 1.5-4 cm × 2-7 mm, base attenuate, apex acute or acuminate; midvein prominent. Inflorescences terminal or in seemingly leaf-opposed lax cymes; peduncle slender. Pedicel 1.5-6 mm. Tepals 5, greenish, elliptic or orbicular, 1.5-2 mm, veins reaching 2/3, margin membranous. Stamens 3. Ovary broadly elliptic or rotund, 3-loculed; styles 3, linear, short. Capsule subglobose, ca. as long as persistent tepals, 3-valved. Seeds numerous, chestnut-colored, reniform, tuberculate. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Aug-Oct. 2n = 18*, 36.
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References:
– Wu ZY, Raven PH, Hong DY (eds) (2003). Flora of China, Volume 5: Ulmaceae through Basellaceae. Science Press, Beijing, and Missouri Bot Garden Press, St. Louis