Sauropus bacciformis
Description 1
Herbs or subshrubs to 60 cm tall, erect, diffuse or prostrate, monoecious, glabrous throughout; stem solitary or several branched arising from base; branches acutely 4-angled or with narrow membranous wing. Stipules narrowly triangular to falcate, 1.7-3 × 0.5-1.5 mm, apex awned, persistent; petiole to 1 mm; leaf blade oblong, elliptic-obovate, rotund, or lanceolate, (0.7-)1-2.5 × 0.2-1.2 cm, ± fleshy, membranous when dried, abaxially somewhat papillate and glaucous, base rounded, rarely cuneate, margin flat, without asperities, apex obtuse or acute, mucronulate; venation pinnate, lateral veins obscure. Inflorescences axillary, flowers in clusters, green to light purple. Sepals with adaxial gland-pits. Male flowers several in lower axils, 1-2 mm in diam.; pedicels (0.6-)1-1.5 mm; sepals 6, broadly ovate or obovate, 0.4-0.6 × 0.3-0.4 mm, apex irregularly crenate; disk lobes fleshy, at bases of sepals, yellow-green; stamens 3-4 mm; filament column ca. 0.2 mm. Female flowers in distal axils, solitary, 3-4[-5.5] mm in diam.; pedicel 1-1.5[-4] mm; sepals oblong-lanceolate, 2-2.8 × 1-1.4 mm, apex [acute or] acuminate; disk absent. Fruiting sepals reflexed; capsules broadly ovoid, 0.5-0.6 × 0.4-0.5 cm, purple when mature, with rim around styles, endocarp and exocarp separating. Seeds yellowish, 3-angled, slender and curved, 3-4[-4.9] × [1.2-]2 mm, surface strobiculate. Fl. Apr-Jul, fr. Jul-Nov. x = 13.
Sources and Credits
- (c) Missouri Botanical Garden, 4344 Shaw Boulevard, St. Louis, MO, 63110 USA, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), http://eol.org/data_objects/4935979
