Alternanthera caracasana Humb., Bonpl. & Kunth

Authority

Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.

Family

Amaranthaceae

Scientific Name

Alternanthera caracasana Kunth

Description

Species Description - Prostrate or spreading herb, 15-30 cm long, many-branched from a taprooted woody base; stems 4-angular, sparsely to densely covered with long white hairs, especially at the rooting nodes. Leaves congested at nodes, one of the pair smaller; blades 1-2.5 x 0.4-1.2 cm, elliptic, oblanceolate, or ovate-elliptic, chartaceous, puberulent, the apex acute or obtuse and mucronate, the base tapering, sometimes oblique, the margins entire or undulate; petioles 0.3-0.8 cm long, sericeous. Flowers produced in sessile, axillary, nearly globose heads; bracts and bracteoles 2-3.2 mm long, lanceolate or ovate. Tepals 3.5-4.5 mm long, ovate to lanceolate, whitish, with retrorsely barbed hairs, the margins hyaline and fimbriate, the single central vein projecting as a spine; filaments united at base, the anthers ovate; staminodes awl-shaped. Fruit compressed, circular. Seeds lenticular, 1 mm wide, yellowish brown.

Distribution and Ecology - In waste or open ground, especially along the coast. Calabash Boom (A2873, A3109). Also on St. Croix and St. Thomas; from eastern United States to Argentina, including the West Indies

Discussion

Illecebrum peploides Willd. ex Roem. & Schult. , Syst. Veg. 5: 517. 1819. Alternanthera peploides (Willd. ex Roem. & Schult.) Urb., Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 15: 168. 1918. Achyranthes peploides (Willd. ex Roem. & Schult.) Britton in Britton & P. Wilson, Bot. Porto Rico 5: 279. 1924.

Alternanthera achyrantha R. Br. var. parvifolia Moq. in A. D C , Prodr. 13(2): 359. 1849. Alternanthera parvifolia (Moq.) Fawc. & Rendle, Fl. Jamaica 3: 139. 1914.