FoI
Graceful Sandmat
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Graceful Sandmat
aturalized Photo: Dinesh Valke
Common name: Graceful Sandmat, Chickenweed, Graceful spurge, Large spotted spurge, Milk purslane
Botanical name: Euphorbia hypericifolia    Family: Euphorbiaceae (Castor family)
Synonyms: Chamaesyce hypericifolia, Euphorbia glomerifera, Euphorbia hypericifolia

Graceful Sandmat is an annual herb with milky sap. Stems are hairless, erect, often red. Oppositely arranged leaves are oblong-elliptic, 1 - 2.5 cm long, 4 - 8 mm wide, margin slightly toothed. The species name hypericifolia means, having leaves like Hypericum, that is, St. John's Wort. Indeed, the leaves do bear a strong resemblance to St Johns Wort's leaves. Flowers are minute, clustered into cup-like cyathia (A cythium is a flower-like object which is not the actual flower). Cyathia borne solitary in the leaf axil and in dense, nearly leafless glomerules constituting lateral branches. Cyathial appendages are petal-like, 4, white to pink, each with a minute gland at the base. Capsules are smooth, generally widest below the middle. Flowering: July-December.
Medicinal uses: All parts of the plant are used as medicine for inducing lactation.

Identification credit: Dinesh Valke Photographed at Nirlon Knowledge Park, Mumbai.

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