Entry From
Flora of Tropical East Africa, page 1, (2008) Author: S.A. GHAZANFAR, F.N. HEPPER & D. PHILCOX
Names
Lindernia diffusa (L.) Wettst. [family SCROPHULARIACEAE], in E. & P. Pf. 4, 3B: 80 (1891); U.K.W.F.: 257 (1994); Fischer, F.A.C. Scrophulariaceae: 144 (1999). Lectotype: Virgin Is, St. Thomas, Browne s.n., Herb. Linn. No. 795.3 (LINN), designated by Edmondson in Davis (ed.), Fl. Turkey 6: 680 (1978)
Vandellia diffusa L. [family SCROPHULARIACEAE], Mant. 1: 89 (I767)
Pyxidaria diffusa (L.) Ktze. [family HYMENOPHYLLACEAE], Rev. Gen. 2: 464 (1891)
Information
Annual, much branched, prostrate, 2.5–5 cm tall; stems up to 20 cm long, often rooting at lower nodes, quadrangular but not sharply so, short, white, patent hirsute throughout, mainly on angles. Leaves broadly ovate to subcircular, 12–19 (–25) mm long, 9–15(–19) mm wide, rounded to broadly cuneate at base, apex obtuse, margins finely crenate-serrate, glabrous above, shortly spreading hirsute on major veins beneath, somewhat densely ciliolate, 3-veined from base with mid vein once or twice clearly pinnately branched. Petioles 1–2 mm long, densely hairy. Flowers solitary in axils mostly of upper leaves; pedicels 2–3.5 mm long in flower, extending to 4–8 mm in fruit, rather stout, densely hairy, ascending in fruit, never reflexed. Calyx prominently 5-ribbed, 3.5–4.5 mm long in flower, patent white-hirsute; lobes narrowly lanceolate to subulate, 1.8–2(–2.5) mm long, acuminate, ciliate; lobes accrescent to 3–5 mm long, widely spreading and distorted after dehiscence of capsule. Corolla white or cream (“mauve blue”, Thomas 853), 5–6 mm long, tube ± 4.5 mm long; upper lip shallowly emarginate or minutely irregularly toothed; lower lip somewhat deeply 3-lobed with median lobe rounded to subtruncate, minutely dentate. Stamens 4, fertile; anterior filaments geniculate, gibbous at base below geniculation, minutely yellow-glandular. Capsule oblong-ellipsoid, 7–7.5(–12) mm long, 2–3.5 mm broad. Fig. 24, p. 79.
Range
DISTR. U 3, 4; T 1, 3 (fide Iverson, Usambara rain forest project, Uppsala, 1988); West Africa from Sierra Leone to Cameroon, Gabon, Congo (Brazzaville), Central African Republic, Congo-Kinshasa, Burundi; Madagascar; Central and South America
Distribution
TANZANIA Bukoba District near Kitwe, Oct. 1931, Haarer 2205!UGANDA Busoga District Lake Victoria, Lalui I., 19 May 1964, Jackson 122!UGANDA Masaka District Lake Nabugabo, Ju1y 1937, Chandler 1769!