Talustuft

Lithophila muscoides Sw. Prodr. 14. 1788
? Illecebrum linear e Thunb. Mus. Upsal. App. 17: 6, nomen nudum. 1809.
Achyranthes linearifolia Sw. Sv. Vet.-Akad. Handl. 1825: 48. 1825.
Iresine linearis Moq. in DC. Prodr. 13 2 : 339. 1849.
Alternanthera caribaea Moq. in DC. Prodr. 13 2 : 354. 1849.
Lithophila muscoides longifolia Griseb. Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 66. 1859.
Lithophila muscoides brevifolia Griseb. Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 66. 1859.
Alternanthera muscoides Benth. & Hook. Gen. PI. 3: 39. 1880.
Iresine muscoides Kuntze, Rev. Gen. 542. 1891.
Lithophila muscoides macrantha Urban, Symb. Ant. 5: 338. 1907.
Lithophila muscoides micrantha Urban, Symb. Ant. 5: 339. 1907.
Root stout, somewhat woody, vertical, terminating in a branched caudex; stems few, slender, prostrate or ascending, 1-20 cm. long, branched, villous, especially about the nodes, or glabrate; basal leaves usually numerous, crowded, linear or filiform to spatulate-oblong, 1.5-5 cm. long, 0.3-5 mm. wide, obtuse, villous near the base, elsewhere glabrous; cauline leaves linear to ob ovate, 3-10 mm. long, 0,3-4 mm. wide, rounded at the apex, cuneate or attenuate at the base, 1-nerved, glabrous; spikes solitary or glomerate, terminal or axillary, sessile or subsessile, 3-15 mm. long, 5 mm. in diameter; bracts ovatetriangular, acute or acuminate, half as long as the perianth, white, membranaceous ; bractlets similar but longer, nearly equaling the perianth; sepals 1-2.5 mm. long, oblong or lance-oblong, the outer obtuse, villous at the base, white, membranaceous, the inner narrower, acute, villous along the nerve ; seed lenticular, suborbicular, 0.5 mm. broad, brown, shining.
Type locality: West Indies.
Distribution: In moist soil and on cliffs near the coast, from the Bahamas to the islands off the coast of Venezuela, but not known from Hispaniola and Jamaica.