Description ³

Herbs annual, erect, 5-25 cm tall. Roots slender, fragrant. Stem thin, multibranched, 3-winged, glabrous. Petiole 1.5-2 mm; leaf blade ovate-cordate or cordate, 5-16 × 5-12 mm, membranous, glabrous, 3-veined, base cordate or truncate, margin entire or slightly undulate, apex obtuse, mucronate. Spike terminal, 1-6 cm, elongated after anthesis. Flowers very small, 2-3 mm, sessile; bracts caducous, very small. Sepals 5, persistent, connate at base, linear-subulate, 0.4-0.5 mm. Petals pink-purple; lateral petals ca. 2.5 mm; keel ca. 3 mm. Filaments ca. 2 mm, united into an open sheath, inside of sheath arachnoid; anthers connate. Ovary reniform, ca. 1 mm in diam., margin narrowly triangular-denticulate; style ca. 2.5 mm; stigma slightly lobed. Capsule reniform, ca. 1 mm, ca. 2 mm in diam., both lateral margins pointedly triangular-denticulate; surface of capsule with protruding reticulations. Seeds 2, black, shiny, ovoid, ca. 1 mm in diam. Fl. Jun-Aug, fr. Aug-Oct.

Sources and Credits

1. (c) Ahmad Fuad Morad, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://www.flickr.com/photos/adaduitokla/5900929435/
2. (c) Ahmad Fuad Morad, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://www.flickr.com/photos/adaduitokla/5900924779/
3. (c) Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/4970581

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