ALTERNANTHERA
Alternanthera
Forssk., Fl. Aeg.- Arab. 28. 1775; Boiss., Fl. Or. 4: 996; 1879; Hook. f., Fl. Brit. India 4: 731. 1885; Schinz in E. & P. Pflanzenfam. ed. 2, 16c: 71. 1934; Fl. China @ eFloras.org 5: 426-427. 2003; Fl. North Amer. @ eFloras.org 4: 447; Fl. Pak. @ eFloras.org p. 38.
Annual or perennial herbs, prostrate or erect to floating or scrambling; leaves opposite, entire. Inflorescences of sessile or pedunculate heads or short spikes; axillary, solitary or clustered, bracteate. Flowers bisexual, actinomorphic, hypogynous, solitary in axil of a bract, bracteoles 2, bracts persistent but the perianth falling with fruit, bracteoles persistent or not. Tepals 5, free, equal or unequal, glabrous or with smooth or denticulate hairs. Stamens 2-5, some occasionally without anthers, filaments monoadelphous at the base into a cup or tube alternating with large and dentate or laciniate to very small pseudostaminodes. Ovary globose or ovoid, unilocular with a single pendulous ovule; style short, stigma capitate. Fruit an indehiscent utricle, globose or ovoid, thin-walled or sometimes corky. Seeds +/- lenticular, vertical.
108 species
Alternanthera bettzickiana
Alternanthera bettzickiana
(Regel) G. Nicholson, Ill. Dict. Gard. 1: 59. 1884; Aschers. & Gaebn., Syn. Fl. Mitteleuropas (5)1: 365. 1920; Bailey, Manual Cult. Pl. ed. 2: 357. 1949; China @ eFloras.org 5: 427; Fl. Pak. @ eFloras.org p. 42; Achyranthes bettzickiana (Regel) Standl. in N.L. Britton & al., N. Amer. Fl. 21: 138. 1917; Telanthera bettzickiana Regal, Ind. Sem. Hort. (L.E. Petrop.) 28: 1862; Alternanthera ficoidea (L.) R. Brown var. bettzickiana (Reg.) Backer, Fl. Males. 4: 93. 1949; Fl. North Amer. @ eFloras.org 4: 449.
Erect or ascending, bushy perennial herb, 20-50(-100) cm tall; stem and branches villous when young but soon glabrescent; apical part quadrangular, basal part cylindric. Leaves opposite, pairs subequal, 1-4 cm x 0.5-2 cm, lamina narrowly or more broadly elliptic-oblong, oblong-ovate, spatulate or rhomboidal ovate, acute or acuminate at apex, margin undulate, base long attenuate into an indistinctly demarcated petiole below, green or red or various shades of purple and green, sometimes tinged with red or yellow; hairy when young, glabrescent. Heads axillary, sessile, usually solitary, globose or ovoid, 5-10 mm x 5-6 mm. Bracts and bracteoles ovate-lanceolate, 1.5-3 mm, abaxially glabrous or long hairy, apex acuminate. Tepals 5, free, white, ovate-oblong or lanceolate, acute, mucronate with excurrent midrib; the outer 3 tepals 3-4 mm long, prominently 3-nerved below and darker in the nerved area with a line of minute barbellate white hairs along each side of thin area, hairs becoming denser towards the base; inner 2 tepals slightly shorter, mostly 1-2-nerved. Stamens 5, each with anther; filaments 1-2 mm long; anthers linear, ca. 1.5 mm long; pseudostaminodes alternating and equalling the filaments, laciniate or dentate or 3-5-parted at apex. Ovary glabrous, ca. 1 mm long; style ca. 0.5 mm long. Fruits not observed.
Common Names: Calico Plant, Red Calico Plant, Joyweed; Lal Mehndi (Hindi)
