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Project Name Data (Last Modified On 1/28/2013)
 

Flora Data (Last Modified On 1/28/2013)
Species BOERHAVIA DIFFUSA L.
PlaceOfPublication Sp. P1. 3. 1753.
Synonym Boerhaavia coccinea Mill. Gard. Dict. ed. 8. Boerhaavia no. 4. 1768. Boerhavia caribaea Jacq. Obs. Bot. 4:5. tab. 84. 1771. Boerhavia diandra Aubl. Hist. P1. Guian. 1:4. 177 5. Boerhaavia paniculata A. Rich. Act. Soc. Hist. Nat. Paris I.:105. 1792. Boerhaavia poly-morpha A. Rich. loc. cit. 185. 1792. Boerhavia hirsuta Willd. Phytog. 1: 1. 1794. Boerhaavia adscendens Willd. Sp. PI. 1: 19. 179 8. Boerhaavia viscosa Lag. & Rodr. in Anal. Ci. Nat. 4:2 56. 1801. Boerhaavia decumbens Vahl, Enum. P1. 1:284. 1805. Boerhaavia laxa Pers. Syn. P1. 1:36. 1 805. Boerha-via squamata Raf. Aut. Bot. 40. 1840. Boerbaavia sonorae Rose, in Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 1:111. 1891. Boerhaavia diffusa var. hirsuta (Jacq.) 0. Ktze. Rev. Gen. 5 3 3. 1 8 9 1. Boerhaavia diffusa var. paniculata (Rich.) 0. Ktze. loc. cit. 1891. Boerhaavia diffusa var. viscosa (Lag. & Rodr.) Heimerl, Beitr. Syst. Nyct. 27. 1897. Boerhaavia viscosa forma oligadena Heimerl, in Ann. Cons. Jard. Geneive 5:189. 1901. Boerhavia rarmulosa M. E. Jones, Contr. 'West. Bot. 10:40. 1902. Boerhaavia viscosa apiculata Standley, in Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12:3 83. 1909. Boerhaavia ixodes Standley, loc. cit. 13:423. 1911. Boerhaavia coccinea forma parcehirsuta Heimerl, in Urb. Symb. Ant. 7:212. 1912.
Description Perennial herbs; stems decumbent to ascending, 4-12 dm. long, rather slender, more or less viscid-puberulent. Leaves opposite or subopposite, often unequal at the nodes, petiolate; blade orbicular to rhombic-ovate below, frequently grading to lanceolate above, obtuse to rounded or acute at the apex, obtuse to rounded at the base, undulate or sinuate, 2-6 cm. long, 2-5 cm. broad, more or less puberulent to glabrate, yellowish green above, paler beneath, not punctate; petiole 1-4 cm. long. Inflorescences paniculiform, lax and many-flowered, leafy-bracteate at least below, viscid-puberulent to glabrate. Flowers in pedunculate glomerulate clusters, sessile or subsessile, the perianth tube 0.7-1.0 mm. long, somewhat less than 0.5 mm. broad, herbaceous, minutely glandular, the perianth limb campanulate, about 0.5 mm. long, red to purple, rarely white; stamens 3, slightly exserted. Anthocarps obovoid to subellipsoid, obtuse to obscurely beaked, 3-4 mm. long, 1 mm. broad, glandular, sessile or subsessile.
Habit herbs
Distribution A weed widely dispersed throughout the tropics and subtropics of America, Africa, Asia, and Oceania. Carasola (Taboga Isi.).
Specimen BOCAS DEL TORO: Lincoln Creek, Chaguinola valley, DunlaP 377. CANAL ZONE: Fri- joles, Wilson 5i; Empire, Hunter & Allen 7S6; Anc6n, Greemnan d5 Green-man 5042; between Corozal and Ancon, Pittier 2188; Ahorca Lagarto to Culebra, Cowell 369; Balboa, Macbride ~S Featherstone 39; Monte Lirio, Maxon 6847; Gamboa, Bro. Heriberto 29, Standley 28344, Piper 5649; Gatu'n, Standley 2732I; Darien, Standley 3I520, Mac- bride 2684. CHIRIQUI: Puerto Armuelles, Woodsoit & Schery 820. PANAMA: Taboga Island, Pittier 3534, Killip 3I77, Allen I01, Standley 271I4, 27845; San Jose Island, Pearl Archipelago, Harlow 47. SAN BLAS: Perme, Cooper 222.
Note Boerhavia erecta and B. difrusa frequently grow together, and hybridization must occur occasionally but insufficiently to blur the outline of the species. In Standley's treatments of Boerhavia for the North American Flora and the Flora of the Panama Canal Zone, the parental species would be called B. erecta and B. caribaea, respectively, and the putative hybrids B. coccinea. Such plants will usually key readily to B. diffusa in the present treatment. A rather extensive examination of herbarium specimens has revealed no tangible differences between B. caribaea and B. coccinea of the New World and B. diffusa of the Old World. The species appears plainly to be an effusive pantropic weed, the dispersal of which has been greatly facilitated by the viscid anthocarps. It is probably, but not certainly, of American origin.
 
 
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