FoI
Basil Buttonweed
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Basil Buttonweed
P Native Photo: Gary Thingnam
Common name: Basil Buttonweed
Botanical name: Spermacoce ocymoides    Family: Rubiaceae (Coffee family)
Synonyms: Borreria ocymoides, Spermacoce stricta, Spermacoce tenera

Basil Buttonweed is a velvet-hairy, erect herb. Leaves are arrange perpendicular opposite pairs, elliptic-oblong, up to 3.5 x 1.5 cm, sparsely rough, nerves 3 or 4 pairs, base wedge-shaped to narrowed, tip pointed, almost stalkless; stipules 1 x 0.8 cm. Flowers are 40-50 per node. Flowers are white, 2 mm wide; tube 2 mm, hairless within; petals 4. Stamens 4. Sepal-cup flat, bristly outside, sepals 4, unequal, linear-lanceshaped, 2 short and 2 long. Capsules are flat, 1.5 x 1 mm, splitting transversely. Basil Buttonweed is found in NE India, South India, and SE Asia. It is found in Eastern Himalaya up to altitudes of 1300-1500 m. Flowering: November-December.

Identification credit: Tabish Photographed in Imphal, Manipur.

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