Coldenia procumbens L.

Western desert (Giza-Faiyum desert).

Old world tropics.

Sandy desert.

Annual.

Apparently rare in Pakistan and perhaps overlooked. To be expected in parts of S. Punjab. Bears a superficial resemblance to the Urticaceous Forsskaolea tenacissima.

Found in moist places.

Procumbent branched herb. Young shoots silky-pubescent. Branches up to 35 cm or more long. Leaves 10-30 x 5-15 mm, obovate to oblong, pinnatifid subobtuse; lobes hairy, especially on lower surface. Petiole 3-7 mm long, dent hairy. Flowers solitary. Calyx ± 2.3 mm long; lobes 4, narrow ovate, c. 2 mm long hairy. Corolla ± calyx size, 4-lobed; lobes obtuse, c. 1.2 mm long. Stamens 4 subsessile; anthers c. 0.4 mm long. Drupe (3-) 4-lobed, ± pyramidal shaped, 2.5 x 3-3.5 mm. Pyrenes beaked, puberulose.

Herbs annual. Stems branched from base; branches prostrate or ascending, 15-40 cm, densely spreading strigose. Lower stem leaves short petiolate, oblong to obovate, 1-2 × 0.5-1.5 cm, asymmetrical, scabrous, strigose, margin coarsely crenate-lobulate; lateral veins 4-6 pairs, prominent abaxially, concave adaxially; upper leaves sessile. Flowers solitary, subsessile. Calyx 1.5-2 mm; lobes lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, slightly enlarged in fruit, persistent, strigose. Corolla white, tubular, 2-2.5 mm, glabrous; lobes orbicular, ca. 0.3 mm. Stamens included; filaments ca. 0.3 mm, glabrous, inserted at middle of corolla tube; anthers rounded to broadly ovate, ca. 0.2 mm. Ovary fastigiate, 4-sulcate; stigma obscurely 2-cleft. Fruit broadly triangular, 3-4 mm, glandular pubescent; mericarps wrinkled, spinescent-tuberculate. Fl. Apr, fr. Jun.

Distribution: Tropical India, Sind, Sri-Lanka, Africa, Australia and America.

Fl. Per.: April-May.

Sandy places, beaches, dry cultivated ground. Hainan, Taiwan [Cambodia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam; Africa, Australia, North America, South America].

procumbens: with stems lying along the ground; procumbent

Procumbent annual herb with much-branched radiating stems up to c. 40 cm long Leaves alternate, numerous, oblong, obovate to almost round, usually up to 2.5 cm long, plicate with dense appressed hairs diverging from the veins above, with dense long glandular hairs below; margin deeply crenate to almost lobed. Flowers solitary, small, white, mostly hidden among the leaves. Fruit depressed ovoid, 4-5 mm in diameter, 4-lobed, beaked with irregular protuberances, brownish, dividing into 2 pairs of nutlets.

Widespread in tropical Africa, Madagascar, tropical Asia and tropical Australia.

Coldenia, named after C. Colden, is a monotypic genus of flowering plants traditionally included in the borage family, Boraginaceae sensu lato. It was assigned to the subfamily Ehretioideae, but molecular data revealed it to be more closely related to the genus Cordia, so that other authors placed in Cordioideae. Subsequently, it was placed in its own family, Coldeniaceae, within the Boraginales order, by the Boraginales Working Group.

The sole species is Coldenia procumbens.