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Species
Boerhavia diffusa L. (1753)
IUCN
NCBI
EOL Text
United States
Origin: Native
Regularity: Regularly occurring
Currently: Present
Confidence: Confident
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | NatureServe |
Source | http://explorer.natureserve.org/servlet/NatureServe?searchName=Boerhavia+diffusa |
Herbs perennial. Stems trailing, to 200 cm; stems glabrous or sparsely pubescent. Roots thick, fleshy. Petiole 0.4-2 cm; leaf blade ovate, 1-5 × 1-4 cm, both surfaces sparsely pubescent, abaxially gray-yellow, wrinkled when dry, base rounded or cuneate, margin undulate, with stout, muticellular hairs, apex obtuse or acute. Inflorescences terminal, capitate-cymose panicles; peduncle slender, sparsely pubescent. Pedicel short to almost absent. Bracts small, lanceolate, pubescent. Perianth limb bright purple or purple-red, 1.5-2 mm. Stamens 1-3(-5), slightly exserted or included. Anthocarp clavate, 3-3.5 mm, 5-ribbed, with viscid glands and sparse pubescence, apex rounded. Fl. and fr. spring-autumn.
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | eFloras.org Copyright © Missouri Botanical Garden |
Source | http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=200007007 |
Flowering mid winter-early fall [year-round].
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | eFloras.org Copyright © Missouri Botanical Garden |
Source | http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=200007007 |
Boerhavia diffusa belongs to a pantropical complex whose distribution, because of differing taxonomic treatments, is not precisely discernable. In North America, the West Indies, and elsewhere, the complex has been treated as having one (e.g., R. W. Long and O. Lakela 1971; R. P. Wunderlin 1998) or two species (E. A. Kellogg 1988; J. K. Small 1913c; P. C. Standley 1918; C. Whitehouse 1996). In the latter situation various binomials have been used. The abrupt bend in the ribs near the fruit apex, making a broadly conic apex, seems to be a useful character for distinguishing most B. diffusa. The shape of the apex, the sparse pubescence of the fruit, the few fruits in individual terminal clusters, and the open, ± leafless inflorescence may have led R. E. Woodson Jr. and H. J. Kidd (1961) to suspect hybridization of this complex with the annual B. erecta. Hybridization is plausible (R. Spellenberg 2000), but clearly intermediate plants are not known.
The leaves are sometimes used as a vegetable (C. Whitehouse 1996). Extracts from roots are used to prepare an expectorant, a diuretic, and a laxative, and in treating asthma (S. P. Ambasta 1986).
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | eFloras.org Copyright © Missouri Botanical Garden |
Source | http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=200007007 |
Global Range: Hawaii (all main islands except Kauai); widepread in south- ern and western Pacific; TX and more southwestern states.
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | NatureServe |
Source | http://explorer.natureserve.org/servlet/NatureServe?searchName=Boerhavia+diffusa |
Herbs, perennial [rarely appearing annual], sometimes slightly woody at base; taproot fusiform, woody. Stems decumbent, ascending, or erect, usually profusely branched throughout, 3-10 dm, glabrous or minutely pubescent basally, glabrous or sparsely pubescent distally. Leaves mostly in basal 1/2 of plant; larger leaves with petiole 10-30 mm, blade broadly lanceolate, ovate, or broadly ovate, occasionally ± round, 20-60 × 15-50 mm (distal leaves smaller, often proportionally narrower), base truncate, broadly cuneate, round, or shallowly cordate, often oblique, margins sinuate, apex obtuse to round, abaxial surface paler than adaxial, glabrous or minutely puberulent, sometimes glandular, usually with few large multicellular hairs on veins, adaxial surface glabrous, rarely sparsely puberulent, neither surface punctate. Inflorescences terminal, forked ca. 3-6 times ± equally, diffuse, occasionally with sticky internodal bands; branches divergent, terminating in compact subumbellate or capitate, 2-5-flowered clusters. Flowers: pedicel shorter than 0.5 mm; bract at base of perianth quickly deciduous, 1, lanceolate, 0.8-1 mm; perianth purplish red to reddish pink or nearly white, campanulate beyond constriction, 1-1.5 mm; stamens 2-3, included or barely exserted. Fruits (1-)2-5(-9) per cluster, gray-brown to brown, obpyramidal, (3-)3.5-4.5 × 1-1.2 mm (l/w: 2.8-4.1), apex broadly conic, with sparse or moderately dense stipitate-glandular hairs on ribs, less densely pubescent or glabrous in sulci [rarely entirely glabrous]; ribs 5, round, smooth; sulci ± 2-2.5 times as wide as base of ribs, not rugose, not papillate. 2n = 26, 52, 54, 116.
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | eFloras.org Copyright © Missouri Botanical Garden |
Source | http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=1&taxon_id=200007007 |
bianual
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | CPQBA/UNICAMP, IABIN |
Source | No source database. |
The plants are used medicinally.
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | eFloras.org Copyright © Missouri Botanical Garden |
Source | http://www.efloras.org/florataxon.aspx?flora_id=2&taxon_id=200007007 |
"Found by the waysides, wastelands, river banks and hedges from plains to 500m. Common. Pantropical."
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | Keystone Foundation, India Biodiversity Portal |
Source | http://indiabiodiversity.org/species/show/32997 |
"Habit: A spreading, prostrate herb, upto 75cm."
License | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ |
Rights holder/Author | Keystone Foundation, India Biodiversity Portal |
Source | http://indiabiodiversity.org/species/show/32997 |