FoI
Gujarat Spurge-Creeper
Share Foto info
Gujarat Spurge-Creeper
P Native Photo: Nandita Muni
Common name: Gujarat Spurge-Creeper
Botanical name: Dalechampia scandens var. cordofana    Family: Euphorbiaceae (Castor family)
Synonyms: Dalechampia cordofana, Dalechampia parvifolia, Dalechampia tripartita

Gujarat Spurge-Creeper is a slender perennial climber, growing from a woody rootstock. Flowers are borne in leaf-axils on flower-cluster-stalks 1-10 cm long. Actual flowers are unisexual, enveloped in the leaf-like white bracts in different inflorescences on the same plant. Bracts are leaf-like, up to 4 cm long, more or less shallowly 3-lobed, heart-shaped at the base; margin sawtoothed. Male bracts are ovate in outline; female bracts elliptic-ovate narrower and shorter than male bracts. Stems are up to 3 m long, velvet-hairy and often with nettle-like hairs. Leaves are 3-cut to 3-lobed, up to 13 x 14 cm in outline, more or less deeply heart-shaped at the base. Leaf margin is sawtoothed, a diagnostic feature of this subspecies. Fruits are up to 5 x 10 mm, more or less smooth, velvet-hairy, brownish. In India, Gujarat Spurge-Creeper is found in Gujarat. It is also found throughout Tropical Africa, S. Arabia, and Pakistan. Flowering: September-October.

Identification credit: Tabish Photographed in Gandhinagar, Gujarat.

• Is this flower misidentified? If yes,