Compilation
Biophytum petersianum

Annual; stem simple, straight, (4–)10–20(–40) cm. high, 2 mm. in diameter, with downward pointing hairs becoming denser towards the top. Leaves subsessile, in a single rosette 2–7 cm. in diameter, up to 2–7 cm. long and 6–12 mm. wide, 3–8(–10)-jugate; rhachis hirsute; terminal leaflets the largest, up to 6–10 mm. long and 3–6 mm. wide, obliquely obovate, ±1.5 times the size of the next pair, the middle leaflets rectangular-ovate, the basal ones ovate-triangular, rounded at the base, sparsely long hairy or glabrous except at the ciliate margin, paler beneath and with prominent nerves, the lateral ones making a right-angle with the midrib and bifurcating towards the margins. Flowers white, yellow, orange or reddish, in generally sessile but sometimes pedunculate 2–6-flowered pseudumbels; peduncles, when present, up to 5.5 cm. long and longer than the leaves, ascending, appressed hairy; bracts linear-lanceolate, 2.5 mm. long, acute to long-acuminate, 1-nerved, usually hairy; pedicels slender, 3–4 mm. long, articulate at about 2 mm. from the point of insertion, hirsute especially towards the top. Sepals linear-lanceolate, 4–6 mm. long, 1 mm. wide, acute, 5–7-nerved, hirsute to glabrate. Petals 1.5 times as long as the sepals, 5–8 mm. long, retuse, narrowly cuneate, connate in the middle to form a tube above the free bases, glabrous. Filaments almost free at the base; long filaments hairy, the short ones glabrous. Ovary deeply 5-lobed, globose and hairy; styles of varying length in relation to the stamens, making the flowers trimorphic heterostylous, hairy; stigma laciniate. Capsule 3 mm. long and 2 mm. in diameter, pubescent or glabrate. Seeds up to 5 per locule, small, rounded, ± 0.5 mm. in diameter, largely transversely ridged, light brown. Fig. 2/B, p. 13.