Compilation
Mitracarpus villosus

Erect or spreading annual herb (5–)9–40 cm. tall, with unbranched or sparsely to much-branched stems; branchlets pubescent with short curled ± adpressed hairs and often with spreading ones as well, the older with epidermis eventually peeling; sometimes quite woody at the base. Leaf-blades elliptic, 1–6 cm. long, 0.3–2.3 cm. wide, subacute at the apex, cuneate at the base, glabrescent to scabrid pubescent above, glabrescent or glabrous beneath save for hairs on the main nerves; margins often scabrid; petiole ± 1 mm. long, often densely pubescent and with ciliate margins; stipule-sheath 1–3 mm. long, divided into 6–9(–15) often colleter-tipped fimbriae, 1–5 mm. long, ciliate. Inflorescences numerous, present in most axils, subglobose, (0.5–)0.8–1.8 cm. in diameter; flowers sessile or almost so; bracteoles filamentous, white, 1–2 mm. long. Calyx-tube 1–1.4 mm. long; limb-tube 0.15–0.4 mm. long; lobes 4, 2 oblong-lanceolate, green with hyaline margins, rather thick, 1.3–2.3(–3) mm. long, and 2 hyaline, triangular-lanceolate, 0.55–1.5 mm. long, narrower than the others, all with usually ciliate margins and often hairy below. Corolla white, glabrous or slightly hairy outside; tube 1.4–1.9 mm. long; lobes ovate, 0.6–1 mm. long, 0.3–0.9 mm. wide. Flowers showing very slight heterostyly, the anthers varying in their degree of exsertion; style 1.1–1.6 mm. long; stigma 0.3–0.5 mm. long. Capsule straw-coloured, ± 1 mm. long and wide. Seeds pale yellow-brown, compressed ellipsoid-rectangular, of very characteristic appearance (see fig. 55/10), dorsally resembling a rectangle with a square portion removed from each corner, ventrally separated into 4 distinct areas by 4 impressed lines radiating from the hilum, 0.8 mm. long, 0.5 mm. wide, rugulose and reticulate. Fig. 55.