atoll research bulletin no. 392 the flora of - Smithsonian Institution ...

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included, anthers normal but always devoid of pollen in "female", long-styled flowers;
fruit, 1 to 1.5 cm long, a berry, ellipsoid, truncate at base, black when ripe, seeds,
numerous, reticulate. Planted ornamental. 6(248).
Pentas bussei K. Kr. "red pentas", "red star cluster"
Recent introduction. Trop. Africa? Rare. Planted ornamental. 3(58675), 6.
Pentas lanceolata (Forssk.) K. Schum. "pentas", "Lady Fletcher", "Egyptian star cluster"
syns. Ophiorrhiza. lanceolata Forsk. ; Pentas carnea Benth .
Recent introduction. Trop. Africa, Madagascar, Comorro Islands and Arabian
Peninsula. Occasional. Erect, pubescent, sometimes straggling, perennial herb or sub-
shrub, up to 80 cm high; leaves, 2.5 to 15 crn long, opposite, ovate, acute to acuminate,
pubescent; inflorescences, up to 7.5 cm across, terminal, open, headlike, corymbose
clusters; corolla, long-tubular, commonly 5-lobed, lobes, acute, mauve or rich purple to
pink and white, with a white-bearded throat; fruit, about 4 mm long, obovoid, capsular
with minute seeds. Planted ornamental. 3(58689), 5, 6(233,166), 7.
Spermacoce assurgens R. & P. "buttonweed"
syns. S. suflrutescens Jacq.; Borreria. laevis sensu auct. plur. non (Lam.) Griseb.
Recent introduction. S. Asia. Uncommon. Decumbent or ascending, perennial
herb, up to 40 cm high, with slender, wiry, somewhat angled stems and slightly woody
and branching near the base; leaves, 2 to 6 cm long and about 0.5 to 2 cm wide, elliptic-
lanceolate, sharply acuminate, base cuneate, pinnately nerved, nerves prominent, scabrid
near margin but otherwise glabrous, subsessile; stipules, connate, with filamentous
processes, interpetiolar, fused to the leaf-stalks; inflorescences, in axillary verticillate
headlike clusters; calyx, small, 4-lobed, lobes ovate; corolla, 1.5 to 3.5 mm long,
infundibular, 4-lobed, lobes, spreading, white or pink-tinged; stamens 4, exserted from
the corolla, with white filaments and pale blue or bluish-tinged anthers; style, pink and
white-tinged; fruit, 1 to 4 mrn long, 2-seeded, enclosed in calyx, finally splitting; seeds,
1.5 to 2 mm long, oblong, brown, transversely ridged, still clasped by the half-calyx
with part of the septum. Weed in waste places and houseyard gardens. 5(2), 6.
Tarenna sambucina (F0rst.f.) Dur. ex Drake
exme
uJ1l... ~ _ s m b u c i n (F0rst.f.) a A. Gray;
Tarenna glubra Merr.
Indigenous? New Caledonia to
glabrous or minutely puberulent shrub
S . E. Polynesia and Micronesia. Extinct? Small
or small tree, 1.5 to 12 m high, with 4-angled