FoI
Five Leaved Carpetweed   
 Foto info
Five Leaved Carpetweed
Native Herb
Photo: Dinesh Valke
Common name: Five Leaved Carpetweed, Mollugo • Hindi: झरसी jharasi • Marathi: झरसी jharasi, Sarsalida • Tamil: குத்துத்திராய் kuttuttiray, turapoondu • Malayalam: Parpadakapullu • Telugu: చేతలాసి chetarasi • Bengali: Khet papra • Oriya: Malagoso
Botanical name: Mollugo pentaphylla    Family: Molluginaceae (Carpetweed family)
Synonyms: Mollugo stricta
Mollugo is an annual weed in cultivated areas, in open grasslands, at low and medium altitudes. Stem, less than a foot tall, and branches are slender and hairless. The leaves are 1.5-3 cm in length, 3-5 mm in width, whorled or opposite, usually linear lancelike, and narrowed at both ends. The flowers are borne in compound cymes, with very slender and very short stalks. The sepals are 1.5-2 mm long. The capsule is as long as the sepals, and nearly spherical, with many seeds which are dark chestnut, thin-walled, and covered with raised tubercular points. Fairly common weed, ascending to 2300 m in the Himalayas. Flowering: September-October.
Identification credit: Dinesh Valke
Photographed at Silonda trail, Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Mumbai.