Iresine diffusa var. spiculigera (Seubert) U. Eliasson

Iresine acicularis Standley, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 18: 93
1916.
Stems erect, very sparsely pubescent with short slender hairs, the internodes 10-23 cm. long; petioles slender, 1-5.5 cm. long; leaf-blades ovate or broadly ovate, 6.5-20 cm. long, 3.5-10 cm. wide, or those among the inflorescence somewhat smaller, rather abruptly longattenuate or acute at the apex, rounded or obtuse at the base and abruptly short-decurrent, thin, bright-green, very sparsely villous on the upper surface with short, remote, soft, yellowishwhite hairs, similarly pubescent beneath and furnished in addition with numerous appressed, shining, amber-colored or bright-yellow, acicular hairs, villous-ciliate, rather prominently veined, but the veins slender, diverging at angles of from 50 to 70 degrees; inflorescence a broad, dense, somewhat leafy panicle, 25 cm. long and 15 cm. broad, the rachises sparsely villous and bearing in addition numerous stout, acicular, glistening amber-colored or yellow hairs, these most abundant at the base of the spikelets; spikelets alternate, pedunculate or sessile, densely flowered, stout, 4^12 mm. long; bracts white, rounded-ovate to narrowly ovate, acute, from half as long to fully as long as the sepals; sepals about 1.5 mm. long, narrowly oblong, acute, those of the pistillate flowers 3-nerved, the flowers furnished at the base with copious long white wool ; staminal cup not lobed ; utricle shorter than the sepals ; seed suborbicular, 0.5 mm. in diameter, dark reddish-brown, shining.
Typb locality: On the Volcan de Fuego, Department of Sacatepequez, Guatemala, at an altitude of 2700 meters.
Distribution: Guatemala to Costa Rica.