|
Alternanthera bettzickiana
|
|
|
|
Family:
AMARANTHACEAE
|
|
Citation: Alternanthera bettzickiana (Regel) Voss in Vilmorin, Blumengartn. (ed 3) 1: 869. 1896; Sasidh., Fl. Shenduruny WLS 253. 1997.
Telanthera betzickiana Regel, Index Sem. Hort. Petrop. 1862: 28. 1862.
|
|
Malayalam Name(s):
|
|
Tamil name(s):
|
|
English name(s):
|
|
Description:
Erect or ascending, bushy perennial herbs, up to 5-45 cm; stem and branches villous when young but soon glabrescent. Leaves opposite, 1-3.5 x 0.5-2 cm, narrowly or more broadly elliptic to oblanceolate or rhomboid-ovate, acute or acuminate at the apex, long-attenuate into an indistinctly demarcated petiole below, often purple-suffused and not rarely variegated. Heads axillary, sessile, usually solitary, globose or ovoid, 5-6 mm in diameter. Tepals white, lanceolate, acute, mucronate with the excurrent midrib, the outer 3 prominently 3-nerved below and darker in the nerved area, with a line of minutely barbellate white hairs along each side of this area, the hairs becoming denser towards the base of the tepal; inner 2 tepals slightly shorter, usually 1-2 nerved. Pseudo-staminodes as long as the filaments, laciniate at the apex.
|
|
Habit:
Herb
|
|
Flowering & Fruiting:
October-February
|
|
District(s):
All Districts
|
|
Medicinal:
|
|
Habitat:
Degraded deciduous forests and wastelands
|
|
Distribution:
Native of Tropical America; now getting naturalised in Asia
|
|
Aquatic:
No
|
|
Epiphyte(s):
No
|
|
Saprophyte:
No
|
|
Stem parasite:
No
|
|
Root parasite:
No
|
|
Flower colour(s):
White
|
|
Weed:
Yes
|
|
Monocot/Dicot:
Dicotyledonous Plants
|
|
Exotic:
Yes
|
|
Garden:
No
|
|
Edible:
No
|
|
Vegetable:
No
|
|
Endemic to:
|
|
IUCN status:
|
|
Altitude:
|
|
Localities:
Kattalappara
|