Wine Spiderling (Boerhavia gracillima)

   

   

Overview, Big Bend. Photograph (left) by Gertrud Konings. Center and right, upper and lower surfaces of foliage, near Alpine, Brewster Co., TX. Photographs by Wynn Anderson.

 

Flowers. Left, near Alpine, photograph by Wynn Anderson. Right, Big Bend, photograph by Gertrud Konings.

• Common English Names: Wine Spiderling, Red Spiderling, Slimstalk Spidering
• Common Spanish Names: Mochis, Cumememi
• Scientific Name: Boerhavia gracillima (beer-HAH-vee-uh grah-SILL-ih-muh)
• Family: Nyctaginaceae (Four-o'clock Family)
• Geographic Range: Southeastern Arizona, south-central New Mexico, Big Bend region of western Texas, south throughout the Chihuahua Desert region to Oaxaca, Mexico.
• Description: Herbaceous annual often with a semi-woody base. Erect to decumbent, sometimes trailing, profusely branched throughout, pubescent basally, glabrous above; leaves mostly basal, broadly rhombic to elliptic-oblong or narrowly ovate, upper surface glabrous, dark green sometimes tinged purplish, lower surface glabrous but much paler in color; inflorescence unequally diffuse and divergently branching, without internodal bands; flowers small, mostly single, long pediceled and strikingly wine-red to brick-red in color.
• Notes: This species is without sticky, viscid bands between stem nodes of the inflorescence.

Last Update: 6 Oct 2013