FoI
Diffuse Hogweed
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Diffuse Hogweed
ative Photo: Thingnam Girija
Common name: Diffuse Hogweed • Marathi: Punarnava, पुंगली Pungali • Tamil: Kodi Minnai, Mukkuttikkodi, Ucha • Telugu: Kanne Komali, Atukumamidi
Botanical name: Commicarpus chinensis    Family: Nyctaginaceae (Bougainvillea family)
Synonyms: Boerhavia chinensis, Boerhavia repanda, Valeriana chinensis

Diffuse Hogweed is spreading perennial herb. Stems are thick, branches spreading, to 1 m, smooth or sparsely velvety. Leaf stalks are velvety, 1-3 cm long. Leaf blade is triangular-ovate or heart-shaped-ovate, 3-6 × 2.5-5 cm, smooth, veins 3-4 pairs. Leaf margin is often alternately curved inward and outward, having rounded lobes separated by rounded sinuses. Flowers are born in few-flowered umbels in leaf axils or at the end of branches. Umbel stalk is 2-4 cm long, while the flower stalks is only 3-7 mm. Flower are tiny, pink, funnel-shaped, 6-8 mm. Stamens are 2-4 in number, and protrude out of the flower trumpet. Ovary is elliptic and stigma peltate. Fruit obconic, 6-7 mm, longitudinally 10-ribbed, with minute glands. Flowering: June-August.

Identification credit: Navendu Pāgé Photographed in City Forest, Hauz Khas, Delhi.

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