Bergia ammannioides Roxb.

Annual, 8-35 cm tall, erect or somewhat decumbent, branched herb of moist places. Stem and branches mostly pinkish, glandular pubescent, rarely sub-glabrous. Leaves opposite, subsessile or shortly petiolate, oblong-obovate, elliptic oblong, lanceolate or oblanceolate, 4-25 mm long, 2-15 mm broad, apex acute, margin minutely and distinctly serrate, glandular pubescent or almost glabrous; stipules triangular lanceolate, hairy with serrate margins, acute, 2-4 mm long. Inflorescence dense or loose axillary fasciculate cyme of 6-12 or more flowers. Flowers reddish, usually 5-merous, 0.5-2 mm long and c. 2 mm across; pedicels slender, 1-5 mm long, glandular pubescent. Sepals 5, free, 1.5- 2.5 mm long, linear-lanceolate to ovate-oblong, acute, the keel and often coloured margins ciliolate, glandular pubescent. Petals 5, lanceolate or oblanceolate, 1-2.5 mm long, obtuse or sub-acute, white or pink. Stamens usually 5, rarely more. Carpels 5, united; styles 5, free, recurved. Capsule reddish, ovoid or subglobose, margins of the valves incurved. Seeds minute, with rounded ends, dark brown, shining, somewhat reticulate.

Herbs annual, 8-30 cm tall. Stem richly branched at base; branches erect or obliquely ascending, densely glandular hairy and puberulous. Stipules 2-fid, ca. 2 mm, submembranous, lobes lanceolate, margin laciniate-denticulate; leaf blade oblanceolate, obovate-lanceolate, or narrowly elliptic, 0.6-2 cm × 2-8 mm, abaxially puberulous and sparsely glandular hairy on veins, adaxially sparsely puberulous or glabrous, base oblique or attenuate, margin serrate, apex acute. Flowers numerous and clustered in leaf axils, small; pedicel 1-2 mm. Sepals narrowly ovate, 1-2 mm, abaxially often villous and glandular hairy, margin membranous, apex acuminate. Petals reddish, narrowly ovate or elliptic, subequaling sepals, apex mucronate. Stamens 5; filaments filiform, base slightly widened. Ovary ovoid; styles 5; stigmas capitate. Capsule subglobose, ca. 2 mm in diam., 5-septicidal. Seeds brown, narrowly ovoid, ca. 0.5 mm, inconspicuously reticulate-striate.

Herbs perennial or subshrubs, 10-30 cm tall. Stem richly

branched at base, reddish, glandular hairy and white villous; branches often prostrate on ground in lower part. Leaves subsessile; stipules 2-fid, ca. 3 mm, submembranous, lobes lanceolate, margin laciniate-denticulate; leaf blade papery, oblong to oblong-lanceolate, 1-3 cm, both surfaces subglabrous or abaxially slightly puberulous, base attenuate, decurrent, margin serrulate, apex acute or acuminate. Flowers usually 4 or 5 clustered in leaf axils; pedicel slender, 3-8 mm, puberulous or glandular hairy. Sepals green, narrowly elliptic or lanceolate, ca. 3 mm, apex acute or acuminate. Petals reddish, obovate or elliptic, ca. 2.5 mm, apex acute. Stamens (5 or 7-)10. Ovary ovoid; styles 5; stigmas capitate. Capsule ovoid, 2-2.5 mm, 5-septicidal. Seeds ovoid, minute, reticulate-striate.

Afriea to Australia.

Distribution: Uzbeck SSR, Arabia, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, W. Pakistan, India, Ceylon, Thailand, Vietnam, Southern China, Malaysia, Philippines, Australia, Kenya, Tanganyika, West Africa, Sudan, Mozambique, Zambia, Rhodesia and S.W. Africa (Verde. l.c.).

500 m

Fl. Per.: November-June

Grassy places along streams, paddy field margins, roadsides. Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Hunan, Taiwan, Yunnan [Laos, Indonesia, Nepal, Tajikistan, Thailand, Vietnam, and probably elsewhere in tropical Asia; tropical Africa, Australia].

Grasslands on mountain slopes, dry fields, roadsides. Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Taiwan [Philippines].