Creeping Spiderling (Boerhavia spicata)

   
 

Creeping Spiderling, near Urique, Chihuahua Mexico. Photograph by Wynn Anderson.

 

Flowers and fruit, near Urique, Chihuahua, Mexico. Photographs by Wynn Anderson.

• Common English Names: Creeping Spiderling
• Common Spanish Names: Mochis, Juanamipil
• Scientific Name: Boerhavia spicata (beer-HAH-vee-uh spih-KAY-tuh)
• Family: Nyctaginaceae (Four-o'clock Family)
• Geographic Range: Prefers disturbed sandy to gravelly soils in desertic scrub and arid grasslands, southern Utah, Arizona, southern New Mexico, and western Texas; in Mexico, Baja California, Sonora, Sinaloa, Chihuahua to Oaxaca.
• Description: Annual herb, erect, ascending or procumbent, stems sparingly branched, densely glandular pubescent to villious, leaves mostly basal, deltate, ovate or lanceolate, green above, pale below, glabrate to glandular pubescent, sometimes punctate, sinuate margins; flowers on few branching stems with viscid internodal bands, in short, often densely flowered, terminal spikes or racemes, pink to white often tinged with pale purple.
• Notes: The purpose of the viscid, sticky internodal rings or bands on the middle to upper stems of the inflorescences of many Boerhavia species as well as other members of the Four O'clock family is unknown. Some suggest they serve a barrier to protect flowers from ants and crawling insect herbivores. Others suggest they may serve a semi-carnivorous purpose, supplying extra nutriments absorbed from trapped insects and windblown organic matter at the time of flowering.

Last Update: 7 Oct 2013