Oxygonum ellipticum R.A.Graham

Polygonaceae, R. A. Graham. Flora of Tropical East Africa. 1958

Habit

A slender, semi-prostrate, spreading herb.

Stem

Stems green becoming brown, puberulous, with long internodes 6–9 cm. apart.

Ocrea

Ocreae 0.8–1.1 cm. long, appressed when young, becoming more open with age, puberulous, truncate, with a terminal fringe of setae 4–4.25 mm. long, the leaf inserted in the upper half but often near the middle.

Leaves

Leaves petiolate, elliptic-lanceolate to ovate-elliptic, 5–5.5 × 1.5–2 cm., broadest at or a little below the middle, apically acuminate with a short terminal mucro, gradually narrowed and decurrent to the petiole, puberulous on the veins of both sides.

Petiole

Petioles 1–1.5 cm. long.

Inflorescences

Inflorescence slender, up to 30 cm. long.

Bracts

Bracts 4–5 mm. long, 1–5 cm. apart, truncate but produced dorsally into a seta 3–4 mm. long, with 1–2 pairs of shorter, lateral setae.

Pedicel

Pedicels glabrous or minutely puberulous, exceeding the bracts by 3–4 mm.

Flowers

Flowers 1–4 to each bract.

Tepal

Tepals 4–5 mm. long, linear-oblong to obovate.

Style

Styles yellow, 5 mm. long, connate for 2 mm. (only long styles seen).

Fruits

Fruit fusiform, glabrous or with scattered papillae, 7–8 mm. long and almost as wide, with three central spreading prickles 2 mm. long on the angles, with or without intermediate, smaller prickles on the faces, the angles also sometimes winged and in the lower half sometimes with 1–2 small teeth on the angles which may not project beyond the wing.

Figures

Fig. 6/6 and 7.

Habitat

Sandy littoral of the lake; 1050 m.

Distribution

not certainly recorded elsewhere T4