Pluchea wallichiana - Stalkless-Leaf Camphor-Weed

Stalkless-Leaf Camphor-Weed is an erect, glutinous, much branched shrub, with stems 1-2 m tall, branches round, striped, glandular velvet-hairy, young ones densely velvet-hairy. Leaves are alternate, broadly elliptic or ovate-oblong, half stem-clasping, blunt or somewhat pointed, often apiculate, margins obscurely toothed or almost entire, 3-6 x 1.5-3 cm, somewhat leathery, velvet-hairy, veins prominent on both surfaces. Flower-heads are borne at branch-ends, in compound corymb, 6 x 3-4 mm (spreading up to 1 cm on drying). Involucral bracts are multiseriate, greenish ciliolate, persistent; outer bracts much shorter than inner; ovate-lanceshaped, pointed, glandular hairy; inner narrower, pointed with peniculate tip. Florets are white with pinkish tips, all tubular; bisexual florets few, about 6 mm long with long tailoo purplish anthers; female florets numerous. Seedpods are brown, about 1 mm long, angled; usually with few fine bristles along angles. Pappus dirty white, uniseriate, antrorsely barbellate. Stalkless-Leaf Camphor-Weed is found in Punjab, Rajasthan, Gujarat and South India. Flowering: November-April.