Talinum fruticosum

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Talinum fruticosum

Description

Annual or short-lived perennial herb; stems erect, stout, fleshy, glabrous, to 1 m tall, often from a woody root. Leaves alternate, often deciduous in the dry season; petiole to ca. 1 cm long; blade fleshy, oblanceolate to obovate, 2-14 x 0.6-4.5 cm, usually rounded or emarginate at apex, attenuate or cuneate at base, glabrous. Inflorescence a few- to many-flowered raceme or subcorymbose cyme, to 7(-19) cm long; pedicels 3-angled, 7-11 mm long, mostly ascending. Sepals pinkish-green, free, suborbicular, broadly ovate or lance-ovate, 5-7 mm long, cuspidate, persistent; petals white, pink or purple, obovate, broadly elliptical or ovate, 6-14 x 6 mm; stamens 20-40, filaments 4-5 mm long, anthers 0.8-1 mm long; ovary subglobose, ca. 1.5 mm wide. Fruit globose or subglobose, 4-6 mm wide; seeds flattened-orbicular, ca. 1 mm wide, black, shining, striolulate in concentric rows.

Distribution

Guianas present, Guyana present, New World tropics present, Southern United States present
Southern United States, New World tropics, including the Guianas; 2 collections seen from Guyana (GU: 2).

Common Name

English (Suriname): Surinaamse postelein, bokolille, posren, postelein

Uses

In Guyana and Suriname sometimes cultivated as a vegetable (Ostendorf, 1962).