Achyranthes ficoidea

Achyranthes ficoidea (L.) Lam. Encyc. 1: 548. 1785
Gomphrena ficoidea LSp. PL 225. 1753.
Illecebrum ficoideum LSp. PI. ed. 2. 300. 1762.
Alternanthera ficoidea R. Br. Prodr. 1: 417. 1810.
Paronychia ficoidea Desf. Tabl. Bot. ed. 2. 14. 1815.
Bucholzia polygonoides erecta Mart. Nov. Gen. & Sp. 2: 51. 1826.
Bucholzia polygonoides diffusa Mart. Nov. Gen. & Sp. 2:51. 1826.
Bucholzia polygonoides radicans Mart. Nov. Gen. & Sp. 2: 51. 1826.
Bucholzia ficoidea Mart. Nov. Gen. & Sp. 2: 52. 1826.
Steiremis ficoidea Raf . FL Tell. 3:41. 1837.
Telanthera ficoidea Moq. in DC. Prodr. 13 2 : 363. 1849.
Telanthera polygonoides diffusa Moq. in DC. Prodr. 13 2 : 364. 1849.
Telanthera polygonoides brachiata Moq. in DC. Prodr. 13 2 : 364. 1849.
Alternanthera polygonoides Griseb. FL Brit. W. Ind. 67. 1859. Not Gomphrena polygonoides L.
1753. Alternanthera polygonoides glabrescens Griseb. FL Brit. W. Ind. 67. 1859. Alternanthera ficoidea brachiata Uline & Bray, Bot. Gaz. 20: 453. 1895.
Prostrate or ascending perennial, rarely suffrutescent at the base; stems 2-10 dm. long, branched or simple, the branches slender, when young pubescent with short, appressed, branched or hispidulous, white hairs, glabrate in age, often rooting at the nodes; petioles slender or stout, 2-7 mm. long; leaf-blades elliptic, oblong, oval, or ovate-oblong, 2.5-5.5 cm. long, 0.8-2.3 cm. wide, acute or rarely obtuse at the apex/ acute or acuminate at the base, when young finely pubescent with short hispidulous hairs, soon glabrate; heads axillary, sessile, solitary or glomerate, about as broad as long, the flowers white or yellowish; bracts and bractlets half as long as the sepals, broadly ovate, acuminate to a rigid spinose tip, usually sparsely pilose; sepals lance-oblong or ovate, 3-3.5 mm. long, acuminate, mucronate, 3-nerved, shortpilose; staminodia equaling or longer than the filaments, ligulate, laciniate at the apex; style elongate; utricle suborbicular ; seed 1 mm. long, dark reddish-brown, shining.
Type locality: Tropical America.
Distribution: General in the West Indies; southern Mexico to Costa Rica and Panama; also