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Roundhead Pastureweed
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Roundhead Pastureweed
ative Photo: Tabish
Common name: Roundhead Pastureweed
Botanical name: Cyathula capitata    Family: Amaranthaceae (Amaranth family)

Roundhead Pastureweed is a perennial herb, 50-100 cm long. Stem is erect, dark purple or yellowish brown, nearly 4-angled, branched, hairy. Leaf stalks are 0.5-1.5 cm long, hairy. Leaves are broadly ovate or obovate- oblong, 5-14 cm long, 3-7 cm wide, papery, both surfaces hairy with hairy margin, base wedge-shaped, tip with a tail-like end. Flowers are borne in spherical or ellipsoid clusters, 2-4 cm in diameter, simple or clustered in spikes. Stalk carrying the head is velvety. Bracts is 3-4 mm, hairless, long-pointed. Flower clusters at axils of bracts, with some perfect flowers and 1 or 2 unisexual ones. Tepals of perfect flowers dark purple, lanceolate, 3-4 mm; imperfect ones yellow, lanceshaped, about 3 mm, rigid, apex hooked. Seed pods are grayish yellow, ovate-oblong, about 3 mm, hairless. Seeds are shiny, ellipsoid, about 2 mm, smooth. Roundhead Pastureweed is found in the Himalayas, at altitudes of 1300-2900 m. Flowering: Aug-September.

Identification credit: Nongthombam Ullysess Photographed in Dhanaulti, Uttarakhand.

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