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Stalkless Lindernia
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Stalkless Lindernia
A Native Photo: Vinayaraj V.R.
Common name: Stalkless Lindernia
Botanical name: Craterostigma sessiliflorum    Family: Linderniaceae (Lindernia family)
Synonyms: Lindernia sessiliflora, Vandellia sessiliflora

Stalkless Lindernia is an annual herb with stem creeping and rooting at the nodes; branches up to 15 cm long, 4-angled, velvet-hairy mainly on the angles. Flowers are borne in leaf-axils, usually solitary or 2-3, about 8 mm long, usually stalkless, sometimes with flower-stalks up to 5 mm long. Flowers are 7-9 mm long, white; tube 5-6 mm long; upper lip entire, 2-3 mm long, brown, lower lip distinctly 3-lobed. In a closely related species Coinwort Lindernia, the upper lip is purple and the plant is erect. Stamens are 4, all fertile. Sepal-cup-tube 4-5 mm long, ribbed, fringed with hairs, 5-lobed; sepals unequal, upper lobe up to 4 mm long, others shorter, 2- 3 mm long, narrowly lanceshaped to linear-sabulate. Leaves are 1.5-3.5 x 1.3-2.8 cm, broadly ovate to nearly round, base rounded, decurrent on leaf-stalk, margins rounded toothed-sawtoothed, tip rounded, nerves 2-4 pairs, somewhat leathery, hairless above, velvet-hairy on nerves beneath; leaf-stalks up to 8 mm long. Capsules are 0.8-1.2 x 0.2-0.3 cm, ellipsoid, cylindric. Stalkless Lindernia is found in Indian Subcontinent to China and Indo-China and Jawa. Flowering: August-December.

Identification credit: Tabish Photographed in Kerala.

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