Oxygonum lobatum R.A.Graham

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

Habit

A stout, ± glabrous, lush, perennial herb 50 cm. or more tall.

Stem

Stems 3–5 mm. thick, reddish-brown. Internodes 4–8 cm.

Ocrea

Ocreae pustular, brown, papery, glabrous, readily tearing, truncate, fringed with pubescent setae 4–5 mm. long, the leaf inserted in the upper part.

Leaves

Leaves petioled, minutely pustular, 6.5–9 × 2.5–4 cm., ± ovate or ovate-elliptic in outline but strongly and irregularly lobed, apically subacute with a membranous mucro, basally narrowed and decurrent (often unequally) to the petiole, glabrous above and below.

Petiole

Petioles brown, 1–2 cm. long.

Inflorescences

Inflorescence stout, elongated, 35–40 cm. long, the racemes single or in pairs from the lowest bract.

Bracts

Bracts 4–6 mm. long, up to 4 cm. apart, foliaceous and terminally membranous, cup-shaped and rather abruptly widening at the base, truncate but produced dorsally into a lanceolate point ± 2 mm. long, without a terminal fringe of setae.

Pedicel

Pedicels exceeding the bracts by 1–2 mm.

Tepal

Tepals green outside, cream inside, 4 mm. long, oblong with a short, ± hooded, acute apex.

Stamens

Filaments 2 mm. long in long-styled flowers, 4 mm. in short-styled flowers, white, filiform; anthers 0.75–1 mm. long, linear.

Style

Long styles 4 mm. long, connate for 2.0 mm.; short styles 1.5 (–2) mm. long.

Fruits

Fruit 10 × 6 mm., trigonous, fusiform-conical, broadest towards the base, glabrous, with three short, slightly reflexed prickles 1–1.5 mm. long, spreading from below the middle when immature but distinctly from nearer the base when ripe.

Figures

Fig. 6/2–4, p. 35.

Habitat

“ Scattered thornbush with poorly developed ground cover ”; also as a weed of native cultivation; 600 m.

Distribution

T6 unknown apart from these two records