Trigastrotheca stricta - Erect Carpetweed

Erect Carpetweed is a spreading herb, 10-30 cm. Stems are rising up, slender, much branched, angled, hairless, when old often reddish brown. Leaves are arranged in pseudo-whorls of 3-5 or opposite; leaf-stalk short or leaves nearly stalkless; leaf blade lanceshaped or linear-lanceshaped, 1.5-4 cm x 2-7 mm, base narrowed, tip pointed or tapering; midvein prominent. Flowers are borne at branch-ends or in seemingly leaf-opposed lax cymes; flower-cluster-stalk slender. Flower-stalks are 1.5-6 mm. Tepals 5, greenish, elliptic or round, 1.5-2 mm, veins reaching 2/3, margin membranous, stamens 3. Ovary broadly elliptic or rotund, 3-loculed; styles 3, linear, short. Capsules are nearly spherical, about as long as persistent tepals, 3-valved. Seeds numerous, chestnut-colored, kidney-shaped, tuberculate. Erect Carpetweed is found in Eastern Himalayas, other parts of India, and Tropical & Subtropical Asia to W. Pacific, at altitudes of 100-1800 m. Flowering: June-August.