Dysphania pumilio

DYSPHANIA PUMILIO

Family:- Amaranthaceae

Common Name:- None

Synonyms:- Chenopodium pumilio

Meaning:- Dysphania Meaning unknown

Pumilio (L) Very small, low, small, dwarf.

General description:- Aromatic annual, densely glandular-puberulent throughout, .

Stems:- 10-40 cm, prostrate, generally many-stemmed.

Leaves:-.

1) Lower long-stalked (petiolate),

2) Upper short-petiolate to stalkless (sessile),

3) All shallowly pinnatifid with 2-5 broad, irregular lobes on either side ,

Flowers:-

1) Inflorescence ± spicate with the flowers in small, dense glomerules,

2) Perianth segments 5, minute (c. 1 mm), free, rounded at the back, green or

suffused purple. Crustaceous and whitish in fruit.

Fruit:-

1) Seed horizontal, 0.6-0.8 mm, roundish-lenticular, obtuse to truncate at the

edges, almost smooth.

Key features:-

1) Leaves simple, less than 3 cm, usually dentate.

2) Inflorescence terminal and axillary, composed of dense glomerules

3) Perianth segments not contiguous, turning white.

Habitat:- Loamy coastal flats, damp pioneer communities by roads and streams 0-

900 m

Distribution:- First reported from the Pinios river delta Greece by Bergmeier (1988:

40) and apparently spreading. Native to S Australia (1). Recently (2020) discovered

on Crete near the Aposelemis dam by Zacharias Angourakis

Flowering time:- May-Oct.

Photos by:- Zacharias Angourakis

1) Arne Stridd "Atlas of the Aegean Flora", book two page 229 (2016)

FAMILY AND GENUS DESCRIPTIONS

AMARANTHACEAE

General description:- Herbs or rarely small shrubs.

Leaves Opposite or alternate, entire, without stipules (exstipulate).

Flowers:- Usually hermaphrodite, often in spicate or capitate, usually bracteate

inflorescences; bracteoles 2-5. Perianth almost always dry and scarious, usually 4-

or 5-merous; segments free or united connate at the base. Stamens 1-5, opposite

the perianth-segments and usually not exserted. Ovary superior, unilocular; ovules

amphitropous.

Fruit:- With a membranous, rarely fleshy wall, splitting open to release the seeds

(dehiscing) irregularly, or opening by a slit running around the circumference

(circumscissile) (sometimes indehiscent).

CHENOPODIUM / DYSPHANIA

General description:- Annual, rarely perennial herbs, glabrous, pubescent,

glandular or farinose.

Leaves:- Alternate, flat.

Flowers:- Hermaphrodite and female, usually in cymes, variously arranged.

Bracteoles absent. Perianth-segments 2-5, more or less unaltered in fruit, rarely

becoming fleshy; stamens 1-5; stigmas 2(-5).

Fruit:- Seeds usually horizontal.

Key features:-

1) Flowers hermaphrodite, sometimes some female.

2) Perianth-segments equal.

3) Lower leaves elliptical to ovate or triangular.

4) Inflorescence of numerous dichasial cymes.

5) Plant without spinose branches, sometimes with spine-tipped leaves and bracts.

6) Leaves flat.

7) Plant with yellow or brownish glands or glandular hairs.