Alternanthera tenella Colla
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Authority
Acevedo-Rodríguez, Pedro & collaborators. 1996. Flora of St. John, U.S. Virgin Islands. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 78: 1-581.
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Family
Amaranthaceae
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Scientific Name
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Description
Species Description - Decumbent or scrambling, robust herb, to 1 m long, manybranched from a woody base; stems cylindrical or obtusely angular, rooting at nodes, usually with reddish hue, pubescent but becoming glabrous. Leaf blades 1.5-4 x 0.4-2 cm, one of the pair smaller, elliptic or spatulate, chartaceous, strigillose to sparsely strigillose, especially on lower surface, the apex acute or obtuse and mucronate, the base tapering and sometimes oblique, the margins entire and ciliate; petioles 0.4-0.8 cm long. Flowers in nearly globose sessile inflorescences; bracts and bracteoles 2-3.3 mm long, ovate. Tepals 2.5-4 mm long, with 3 main veins, the middle vein projecting as a spine at apex, densely or sparsely covered with ascending minutely spinulose hairs, the outer ovate or lanceolate, the inner smaller and conduplicate; anthers oblong; staminodes fimbriate at apex. Fruit ovoid. Seeds lenticular, ca. 1 mm wide, brown.
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Discussion
Alternanthera polygonoides R. Br. var. glabrescens Griseb., Fl. Brit. W . I. 67. 1859. Alternanthera ficoidea sensu authors in the West Indies, nonR. Br., 1810.
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Distribution
On open ground at low elevations, mostly along the coast. Coral Bay (A2830), Reef Bay (A2728), Waterlemon Bay (A1938). Also on St. Thomas; a polymorphic species distributed from Mexico to Argentina including the West Indies.
West Indies| Argentina South America| México Mexico North America| Saint Thomas Virgin Islands of the United States South America|