SPECIES DESCRIPTION
DYSPHANIA PUMILIO
Family and Genus:- See- AMARANTHACEAE
Common Name:- None
Homotypic Synonyms:- Chenopodium pumilio, Neobotrydium pumilio,
Teloxys pumilio.
Meaning:- Dysphania Meaning unknown
Pumilio (L) Very small, low, small, dwarf.
General description:- Aromatic annual, densely glandular-puberulent throughout.
Stems:-
1) 10-40 cm, prostrate, generally many-stemmed.
Leaves:-.
1) All shallowly pinnatifid with 2-5 broad, irregular lobes on either side.
a) lower, long-petiolate.
b) upper, short-petiolate to sessile.
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)
and apparently spreading. Native to S Australia. Recently (2020) discovered on
Crete near the Aposelemis dam by Zacharias Angourakis.
Flowering time:- May-Oct.
Photos by:- Zacharias Angourakis
