398 AMARANTHACEAE 
11. GOMPHRENA L. 
Annual or perennial herbs, with stems mostly enlarged at the joints, and variously 
pubescent foliage. Leaves opposite: blades entire, sessile or short-petioled. Flowers 
perfect, usually in solitary and sessile clusters. Sepals 5, concave, mostly acute. Stamens 
5, included or exserted : filaments united into a tube: anthers in the sinuses of notched or 
cleft segments of the filament tube. Ovary 1-celled. Utricle more or less flattened. 
GLOBE AMARANTH. 
Stigmas short, sessile or nearly so. 1. G. Nealleyi. 
Stigmas filiform: style manifest. 2. G. decumbens. 
1. Gomphrena Nealleyi Coult. & Fish. Perennial, villous. Stems erect or ascend- 
ing, 1-3 dm. long, sparingly forked: leaf-blades oblong to oblong-spatulate, 2-3.5 cm. 
long, mucronate, glabrate above, half-clasping at the base: peduncle slender, often about 
as long as the main stem: heads ovoid or cylindric-oblong to cylindric, 1-3 cm. long, 
often rose-tinted, sessile, subtended by 2 leaf-like bracts: bracts of the head ovate, acute or 
acuminate, 2.5-3 mm. long, about 3 as long as the keeled bractlets: sepals about 5 mm. 
long, rigid at maturity, linear-lanceolate, densely woolly below, slightly surpassed by the 
bractlets, somewhat united at the base : stigmas 2, sessile or nearly so. 
In sandy soil, Texas and adjacent Mexico. 
2. Gomphrena decümbens Jacq.  Perennial, woolly or villous-woolly. Stems 
branched at the base, the branches procumbent, or ascending, 1-4 dm. long, more or less 
branched: leaf-blades oblong to spatulate-oblong, 2-4 cm. long, acutish or obtuse and 
mucronulate, entire, each narrowed into a petiole-like base which is partly clasping : pedun- 
cles mostly simple: heads subglobose to globose-cylindric, 1-2 em. long, pearly white or 
rose, subtended by 2 leaf-like bracts: bracts of the head ovate, acuminate, about 4 as long 
as the narrower keeled and crested obtuse bractlets : sepals about as long as the bractlets, 
1-nerved, the outer obtuse, glabrous, the interior villous, less obtuse : style slender. 
In sandy soil, southern Texas and Mexico, and throughout tropical America. 
12. LITHOPHILA Sw. 
Perennial, rather fleshy herbs, with prostrate or creeping branches. Leaves opposite : 
blades narrow, entire, thickish, commonly sparingly pubesgent at the base. Flowers per- 
fect, in dense axillary or terminal sessile or peduncled heads. Calyx flattened. Sepals 5, 
firm, obtuse. Stamens 5, included : filaments united into a short tube at the base. Stami- 
nodia wanting. Anthers l-celled. Ovary 1-celled, flattened: style very short: stigmas 
subulate. Ovule solitary. Utricle broad, rather leathery, indehiscent. [ Philozerus R. Br. ] 
1. Lithophila vermicularis (L.) Uline. Perennial, glabrous, somewhat fleshy. 
Stems branched at the base, the branches spreading radially, prostrate, often creeping, 2-7 
dm. long, more or less ascending at the tips : leaf-blades half-terete, linear or club-shaped, 
1-2.5 cm. long, acute or acutish, entire, sessile: heads subglobose to cylindric, 1-2 cm. 
long, sessile, silvery-white : bracts lanceolate, acute, glabrous : sepals surpassing the bracts, 
usually 3.5-4 mm. long, flattened, obtuse, the 2 outer woolly at the base: stamens 5: stami- 
nodia wanting : utricle included. 
In sandy soil, Florida to Texas and in tropical America. 
13. IRESINE R. Br. 
Annualor perennial herbs, with tall upright stems. Leaves opposite: blades thin, 
pinnately nerved, entire, petioled. Flowers perfect, polygamous or dioecious, subtended 
by 3 bracts, in terminal panicles. Sepals 5, glabrous, or those of the pistillate flowers 
usually pubescent. Stamens 5 or fewer: filaments filiform, united at their bases: anthers 
l-celled. Ovule solitary. Utricle subglobose, indehiscent. Broop-LEAr. JuBa’s BUSH. 
. 1. Iresine paniculata (L.) Kuntze. Foliage glabrous. Stems erect, more or less 
widely branched, 6-12 dm. tall, ridged or angled, commonly swollen at the nodes : leaf- 
blades narrowly lanceolate to ovate, 5-10 em. long, acute or acuminate at both ends, entire, 
slender-petioled : panicles usually ample, rather narrow, nearly leafless at least above: 
spikes white or nearly so: calyx glabrous and with 5 stamens*in the case of staminate 
flowers, woolly in the case of pistillate flowers : sepals 3-nerved. 
In dry soil, Ohio to Florida and New Mexico. Also in tropical America. Summer and fall. 
