Compilation
Boerhavia coccinea

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Name

Identification
Boerhavia coccinea Mill. [family NYCTAGINACEAE ] (stored under name); Verified by Charles Dennis Adams,
Related name
  • Boerhavia coccinea
  • Boerhavia diffusa
  • Boerhavia bracteata
  • Boerhavia caespitosa
  • Boerhavia viscosa
  • Boerhavia unrecorded
  • Boerhavia erecta
  • Boerhavia hirsuta
  • Boerhavia adscendens
  • Boerhavia paniculata
  • Boerhavia procumbens
  • Boerhavia maroccana
  • Boerhavia marlothii
  • Boerhavia repens
Common name
  • hierba de la hormiga, Flora of North America Vol. 4
  • scarlet spiderling, Flora of North America Vol. 4
  • hierba del cancer, Flora of North America Vol. 4
  • Red spiderling, Flora of North America Vol. 4

Flora

Entry for BOERHAVIA coccinea Mill. [family NYCTAGINACEAE]
Herbarium
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)
Collection
Flora Somalia
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
Flora Somalia, Vol 1, (1993) Author: by M. Thulin [updated by M. Thulin 2008]
Names
BOERHAVIA coccinea Mill. [family NYCTAGINACEAE], (1768). Fig. 91 F.
Information
Annual or perennial, stems sprawling to ascending; most parts glandular-hairy, sometimes conspicuously so, occasionally apparently eglandular. Petiole well-defined, up to 3 cm long; leaf-blade very variable, lanceolate to suborbicular, to 1.8–6 x 1–5.5 cm, cuneate to shallowly cordate at the base, rounded to acute at the tip, obscurely sinuate. Flowers in 2–8-flowered clusters that are usually arranged in an ascending panicle; pedicel to 1 mm long. Perianth-limb white, pink or mauve, up to 2(–5) mm long. Stamens usually 3. Anthocarp fusiform, obviously 5-ribbed, 3–3.5(–4) mm long, usually glandular hairy.
Range
N1–3; C1; S1, 2 widespread in Africa.
Altitude range
near sea level–1580 m.
Distribution
SOMALIA Gillett 4406; Kazmi, Elmi & Rodal 525; Godding 181.
Distribution (external)
Djibouti
Eritrea
Ethiopia
Notes
Aiyu, dalagh, ged irman, lalagh (Som.). A polymorphic species with a complex infraspecific nomenclature. In Somalia there is considerable variation in the indumentum, habit, and size and shape of leaves, but the characters are mostly not correlated and no formal taxa have been recognised here. However, Kazmi, Elmi & Rodal 525 and Thulin & Warfa 7117 represent a large-flowered (perianth-limb 4–5 mm long), prostrate and particularly glandular-sticky coastal form in S2 that may well merit taxonomic segregation, perhaps even at species level. The Old World material of the species appears to differ from that of the New World by the paler flowers. In American collections the flowers are rather consistently described as being “blood-red”.

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