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(Last Modified On 4/2/2013)
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(Last Modified On 4/2/2013)
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Species
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Tribulus terrestris L.
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PlaceOfPublication
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Sp. PI. 387, 1753.
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Description
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Prostrate annual; herbage whitish-pubescent, especially young shoots, becom- ing glabrate on older parts; stems more or less hirsute and sericeous, to 1 m long. Leaves 2-4.5 cm long, ca 1 cm wide; leaflets 4-6(-8) pairs, subsessile, ovate to elliptic, inequilateral, unequal, acute or obtuse, middle pairs largest, densely ap- pressed silky-pubescent giving younger parts a silvery appearance, becoming glab iate, largest 4-1 1 mm long, 2-4 mm wide; stipules subulate to falcate, pu- bescent, 1-5 mm long, to 1 mm wide. Buds ovoid-, obtuse, 2-3 mm long. Flowers 5-10 mm in diam; peduncles shorter to longer than shortest pair of leaves, hirsute and strigose, bent but little thickened distally in fruit, 2-7 mm long in flower, 5-15 mm long in fruit; sepals ovate-lanceolate, acute, hirsute, the margins scarious, minutely ciliate, 2-4 mm long, 1.5-2 mm wide; petals yellow, oblong, 2.5-5 mm long, 1-3 mm wide; outer nectaries more or less bilobed, yellowish; stamens with filaments subulate, 2-3 mm long, the anthers cordate, versatile, 1 mm long; inner whorl of nectaries triangular, yellow, free; ovary hirsute with stiff upward-spread- ing bulbous-based trichomes, 1-5 mm high, the style 1-1.5 mm long, the stigma globose, slightly asymmetrical, ca 1 mm in diam. Fruit 10-1 5 mm in diam ex- cluding spines, 4-12 mm high; mericarps dorsally crested and tuberculate, bearing 2 conical spreading dorsal spines 3-7 mm long and 2 smaller spines near base directed downward or latter absent, hispid and densely sericeous to strigose or almost glabrate, gray to green, sometimes 1 or more aborting.
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Habit
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herb
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Note
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It is impossible to list the synonomy for this species at present; however, a majority of the names published in the genus probably are referable to it.
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Distribution
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This native of the Mediterranean region is a wide-spread weed in the warm- temperate areas of the world. It has been collected only rarely in the New World tropics.
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Specimen
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CANAL ZONE: railroad track, Frijoles, Killip 3445 in part (US).
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Tag
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Project Name
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