| Dicotyledon | Literature for Boerhavia repens
Wagner et al., 1990, 1999; Lorence & Wagner, 2020. |
| Nyctaginaceae -- The Four-o'clock Family | Bibliography |
| Boerhavia repens | |
Common name(s): alena, anena (Ni`ihau), nena |
| General Information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Distribution | Extending from Africa eastward to eastern Polynesia and the Hawaiian Islands, primarily coastal and usually at low elevations.In the Hawaiian Islands, indigenous to Kure, Midway, Pearl and Hermes, Lisianski, Laysan, French Frigate Shoals, Nihoa, Ni`ihau, Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lana`i, Maui, Kaho`olawe, Hawai`i. | |
| Habit |
Relatively robust, perennial herb with a thickened root; several prostrate stems radiating from the root crown, sparingly to many branched. |
|
| Leaves |
Leaves petiolate; blade usually ovate to elliptic-ovate or suborbicular, 1‒5 cm long, 0.5‒5 cm wide, margin entire to gently sinuate, apex obtuse to acute, base rounded to truncate or subcordate; petiole 0.3‒2 cm long. |
|
| Flowers |
Inflorescences an axillary, pedunculate cyme or pseudoumbel, usually borne from alternate axils, peduncles appearing to be crowded aside from the axil proper by the growth of an axillary branch, which very soon bears axillary cymes, leaves often gradually reduced distally, creating a paniculate appearance, but with a clear central axis, peduncles branched only near tip, branching basically umbelliform, each branch ending in a glomerule of flowers, or the branch system reduced to a single umbelliform to glomerate cluster of flowers, or the peduncle bearing 1 pair of leaves and a glomerate cluster of flowers. Flowers with perianth 2‒2.5 mm long, strongly constricted below the middle, proximal part glandular, 5-ribbed, limb pink or white, campanulate, shortly 5-lobed; stamens 2‒4, subequal with perianth. |
|
| Fruit |
Fruit clavate to ellipsoid, 3‒4 mm long, apex rounded, 5-ribbed, usually glandular to subglabrous or glabrous. |
|
| Chromosomes |
2n = 52*. |
|
| Contributor |
Nancy Khan |
