Biophytum nervifolium - Little Tree Plant

Little Tree Plant is an annual herb with stem very short, erect, unbranched. Leaves are many, forming a crowded rosette, almost on ground; leaflets 8-12 pairs, generally overlapping, at branch-ends one the largest, broadly oblong, apiculate at tip, hairless, paler beneath; lateral nerves very prominent. Flower-cluster-stalks are stiff with appressed hairs. Flowers are borne in dense umbels, crowded; flower-stalks shorter than sepals; bracts hairy. Sepals are linear-lanceshaped, rounded at base, tapering at tip, 4.5-5 x 0.6-0.8 mm, hyaline at margin; nerves 7, prominent, parallel. Petals inverted-lanceshaped, narrowed at base, entire at margin, rounded at tip, 6-7 x 0.7-1 mm, with a distinct red midnerve. Ovary 2.5-3 mm long; styles hairy; stigma papillose. Capsules ovoid, 3-3.5 x 2.5-3 mm, shorter than sepals; seeds 0.9-1 x 0.6-0.8 mm, strongly and transversely 6-ribbed, not tubercled. Little Tree Plant is native to South India, Sri Lanka. Flowering: August-January.