Sphenoclea zeylanica Gaertn.Family: Sphenocleaceae
English: Chicken-spike
Chinese: 尖瓣花
Spanish: Sfenoclea
Tamil: Nandu Kannu
Description: Erect herb; stem to 125 cm high, divaricately branched, thickened towards base to 3.5 cm in breadth, with long fibrous roots, fistulous, the cortex replaced by spongy, aerenchymatous tissue. Leaves oval to oblong-elliptic, 8.6-11.5 x 2.2-4.7 cm, cuneate or abruptly acute at base, subacute to obtuse at apex, entire, membranous, glaucous; petioles 1-3 cm long. Spikes ovoid, to 3 cm long, bluntly tapering to apex; peduncles to 6 cm long; flowers many. Bracts spathulate, to 3 x 2 mm, clawed, cuspidate-acute, inflexed over calyx. Bracteoles lateral to bracts, linear, 2-3 mm long. Calyx tube cupular, 1 mm long; lobes obovate-deltoid, 1 x 2 mm, concave, pale green. Corolla white; tube 1-1.5 mm long; lobes ovate-triangular. Filaments glabrous. Top of ovary truncate; stigma flattened, obscurely 2-lobed. Capsule depressed-globose, 3-3.5 mm in diameter, chartaceous; seeds oblong-cuneate, 0.5-0.8 x 0.2 mm, minutely ridged longitudinally, yellowish-brown.
22 Published articles of Sphenoclea zeylanica
