General Information |
Distribution | Native to India, Malay Peninsula, and Africa, grown as a ground cover in many tropical and subtropical areas.
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Habit
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Perennial herb, procumbent or scandent; stems 0.5‒2 m long.
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Leaves
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Leaves petiolate; blade ovate to broadly ovate, 1.5‒4 cm wide, 2.5‒13 cm long, sparsely strigillose, especially on the veins, apex acute to acuminate, base acute to obtuse or subcordate; petiole 0.5‒4.5 cm long.
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Flowers
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Flowers subtended by small, linear to triangular bracts 1‒2 mm long; pedicel ca. 2 mm long; calyx lobes 5‒7 mm long; corolla pale blue to purple, occasionally white or tinged yellow, 3‒3.5 cm long, lobes spreading.
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Fruit
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Fruit clavate, 2‒3 cm long, with a short sterile beak 0.3‒0.4 cm long, bilobed by protrusion of the seeds, glandular puberulent.
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Seeds
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Seeds 4, irregularly orbicular, pale dull brown, surface rugose, 3‒4 mm in diameter, margin irregularly scalloped.
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Chromosomes
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2n = 26, 28, 44, 48, 50, 52.
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Contributor
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Nancy Khan
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