Compilation
Gomphrena celosioides

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Name

Identification
Gomphrena celosioides Mart. [family AMARANTHACEAE ]
Related name
  • Gomphrena celosioides

Flora

Entry for Gomphrena celosioides Mart. [family AMARANTHACEAE]
Herbarium
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (K)
Collection
Flora Zambesiaca
Resource Type
Reference Sources
Entry From
FZ, Vol 9, Part 1, page 28, (1988) Author: C. C. Townsend
Names
Gomphrena celosioides Mart. [family AMARANTHACEAE], in Nov. Act. Acad. Caesar-Leop. Carol. 13: 301 (1826).—Cavaco in Mém. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris Sér. B, 13: 165 (1962).—Podlech & Meeuse in Merxm. Prodr. Fl. SW. Afr. 33: 16 (1966).—J.H. Ross Fl. Natal: 158 (1973). TAB. 31. Type from Brazil.
Gomphrena globosa subsp. africana Stuchlik [family AMARANTHACEAE], in Beih. Bot. Centralbl. 30, 2: 396 (1913). Type from Transvaal.
Gomphrena decumbens [family AMARANTHACEAE], (non Jacq.) auctt. incl. Stuchlik in Burtt Davy, F.T.F.T. 1: 185, f.20 (1926).—Mears in Taxon 29: 87 (1980).
Gomphrena alba Peter [family AMARANTHACEAE], in Fedde, Repert. Beih. 40, 2, Descriptiones: 24 (1932). Type from Tanzania.
Gomphrena celosioides forma villosa Suesseng. [family AMARANTHACEAE], in Fedde, Repert. 42: 57 (1937). Type from Namibia.
Information
Perennial herb, prostrate and mat-forming to ascending or erect, c. 7–30 cm., much-branched from the base and also above; stem and branches striate, often sulcate, green to reddish, when young usually more or less densely furnished with long, white, lanate hairs, more or less glabrescent with age. Leaves narrowly oblong to oblong-elliptic or oblanceolate, c. 1.5–4.5 (8) × 0.5–1.3 (1.8) cm., obtuse to subacute at the apex, mucronate, narrowed to a poorly demarcated petiole below, the pair of leaves subtending the terminal inflorescence more abruptly narrowed and sessile, oblong or lanceolate-oblong, all leaves glabrous or thinly pilose above, thinly to densely furnished with long whitish hairs on the margins and lower surface, sometimes more or less lanate on both surfaces. Inflorescences sessile above the uppermost pair of leaves, white, at first subglobose and c. 1.25 cm. in diam., finally elongate and cylindrical, c. 4–7 cm. long with the lower flowers falling, axis more or less lanate; bracts deltoid-ovate, 2.5–4 mm. long, shortly mucronate with the excurrent midrib; bracteoles strongly laterally compressed, navicular, c. 5–6 mm. long, mucronate with the excurrent midrib, furnished along about the upper one-third of the dorsal surface of the midrib with an irregularly dentate or subentire wing. Tepals c. 4.5–5 mm. long, narrowly lanceolate, 1-nerved, the outer 3 more or less flat, lanate only at the base, nerve thick and greenish below, thinner and excurrent in a short mucro at the apex; inner 2 sigmoid in lateral view at the strongly indurate base, densely lanate almost to the apex, slightly longer. Staminal tube subequalling the perianth, the 5 teeth deeply bilobed with obtuse lobes subequalling the c. 0.75 mm. long anthers which are set between them; pseudostaminodes absent. Style and stigmas together c. 1 mm. long, style very short, stigmas divergent. Capsule shortly compressed-pyriform, c. 1.75 mm. long. Seeds compressed, ovoid, c. 1.5 mm. in diam., brown, faintly reticulate, shining.
Habitat
It occurs along roadsides, in waste and disturbed ground, as a weed of cultivation, in open places in forests and grassland, on anthills, and on dried-out pans and flood-plain; chiefly on sandy soil, but also on black clay.
Range
A native of S. America (S. Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina) which has spread with great rapidity during the present century to become a widely distributed weed in the tropics and subtropics
Distribution
Mozambique M Maputo, 6.ix.1945, Pedro 37 (K; PRE).Mozambique MS Beira, iv.1921, Dummer 4668 (K).Mozambique T Tete, 25.x.1965, Myre & Rosa 4733 (LISC).Mozambique Z Quelimane Distr., Namagoa, s.d., Faulkner K120 (K; SRGH).Malawi S Blantyre Distr., by Matope Bridge, 470 m., 12.ii.1970, Brummitt & Banda 8542 (K; LISC; MAL; PRE; SRGH).Zimbabwe S Chiredzi Distr., Nyajena common land, Mabagweshe, 18.v.1971, Taylor 178 (K; SRGH).Zimbabwe E Roadside c. 5 km. N. of Mutare, 1400 m., Fries, Norlindh & Weimarck 3992 (K; L).Zimbabwe C Harare, Mukavisi Vlei, 1425 m., i.1917, Eyles 590 (K; SRGH).Zimbabwe W Hwange Nat. Park. Guvalala Pan, 11.xi.1968, Rushworth 1255 (K; LISC; SRGH).Zambia S 3 km. from Namwala on Kafue Nat. Park Rd., 11.xii.1962, van Rensburg 1068 (K; SRGH).Zambia E Chipata 1030 m., 1.i.1936, Winterbottom 21 (K).Zambia C Kabwe Distr., Kamaila Forest St., 36 km. N. of Lusaka, 9.ii.1975, Brummitt, Hooper & Townsend 14289 (K; NDO).Zambia W Mwinilunga Distr., Matonchi Farm, 16.xi.1937, Milne-Redhead 3271. (BM; K).Zambia N Mbala Distr., Chilongowelo Garden, 4.ii.1952, Richards 684 (K).Botswana SE Farm, Springfield, 3 km. S. of Lobatsi, E. of railway, 17.i.1960, Leach & Noel 144 (SRGH).Mozambique N Mocambique Distr., Erati, Namapa, Estação Experimental do C.I.C.A., 20.iii.1961, Balsinhas & Marrime 300 (COI; K; L; LISC; LMJ; SRGH).Malawi N Mzimba Distr., 5 km. W. of Mzuzu, Katoto, 1365 m., 13.iii.1974, Pawek 8218 (K; MAL; MO; SRGH; UC).Zimbabwe N Hurungwe Safari Area, c. 349.5 km. Harare to Chirundu, 325 m., 14.ii.1981, Philcox, Leppard & Dini 8522 (K; SRGH).Zambia B Sesheke, by Zambezi R., 28.xii.1952, Angus 1063 (FHO; K).Botswana N Maun, Camp No. 9, 15.i.1974, Smith 782 (K; SRGH).
Notes
According to Mears (“The Linnean species of Gomphrena L.” in Taxon 29: 86–7 (1981)) this widespread weed has been misidentified as G. celosioides Mart, and is really G. decumbens Jacq., which in turn should now be called G. serrata L. He believes that true celosioides is restricted to South America except in cultivation. However, the original description and (very good) plate of G. decumbens indicate a plant with (1) an annual root (2) bracteoles with a serrate keel reaching almost to the base and (3) heads sessile in groups of three on the stems and principal branches - none of which characters can possibly apply to the African weedy species. Nor does it agree with Linnaeus's description of “capitulis solitariis terminalibus sessilibus” - which could apply to the African species - or various others. Mears's neotypification of G. serrata in the above paper seems to me conjectural, and as I cannot separate the African plant from the isotypes of G. celosioides which I have seen, I prefer to retain this name. G. serrata L. may indeed be an earlier name for G. celosioides but (cf. my remarks on Achyranthes nodosa Schum. under Pandiaka involucrata) in the absence of an unquestionable type I feel it very desirable to adhere to the established name.

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