Description:
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Erect or spreading annual herb, up to c 80 cm high, with a densely hairy, stout, subterete to angled stem. Leaves ovate to rhomboid or oblong-ovate, 5–11 cm long, hairy along the veins beneat and often the lower margins; petiole up to c. 6 cm long, sometimes as long as leaf-blade. Flowers in stout, axillary and terminal spikes, usually shortly branched to give a lobed appearance, greenish or rarely somewhat pink-suffused, male and female flowers intermixed, the latter generally much more plentiful. Bracts and bracteoles lanceolate-subulate, pale-membranous with a prominent green midrib. Perianth segments 5. Capsule subglobose, c. 2 mm long, usually shorter than the perianth. |
Literature:
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Mapaura, A. & Timberlake, J. (eds) (2004). A checklist of Zimbabwean vascular plants Southern African Botanical Diversity Network Report No. 33 Sabonet, Pretoria and Harare Page 16.
Townsend, C.C. (1988). Amaranthaceae Flora Zambesiaca 9(1) Pages 46 - 47.
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