FoI
Toothed Bract Indian Copperleaf
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Toothed Bract Indian Copperleaf
ative Photo: Dinesh Valke
Common name: Toothed Bract Indian Copperleaf
Botanical name: Acalypha lanceolata    Family: Euphorbiaceae (Castor family)
Synonyms: Acalypha boehmerioides

Toothed Bract Indian Copperleaf is an erect annual herb 10-100 cm tall. Male and female flower reside on the same plant. Stems are longitudinally grooved, velvety. Alternately arranged leaves are ovate 1-8 cm long, 0.8-5 cm wide, pointed to long-pointed at the tip, rounded at the base. Leaf margins are coarsely toothed, surfaces densely velvety, gland-dotted. Leaf-stalks is 0.5-5 cm long. Flowers are born in 1-4 spikes, 0.5-3 cm long, in leaf axils. The flowers lower on the spike are female, upper ones male. Male flowers are minute, less than 0.5 mm in diameter, clustered. Female flowers are subtended by a cup-shaped bract 1.5-3 mm long with a toothed margin. Fruit is a velvety, 3-lobed pod, 1-2 mm long, splitting into 3 one-seeded segments. Toothed Bract Indian Copperleaf is native to Indian subcontinent, Arabian Peninsula, China and parts of Africa. Flowering: March-October.

Identification credit: Ajinkya Gadave
Photographed at Nirlon Knowledge Park, Mumbai.
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