FoI
Matted Sandmat
Share Foto info
Matted Sandmat
aturalized Photo: Gurcharan Singh
Common name: Matted Sandmat, Roundleaf Spurge • Bengali: Dudhia phool, Swetkerui • Hindi: दूधी Dudhi
Botanical name: Euphorbia serpens    Family: Euphorbiaceae (Castor family)
Synonyms: Euphorbia bombaiensis, Euphorbia orbiculata var. jawaharii

Matted Sandmat is a completely hairless much-branched prostrate annual herb with stems up to 25 cm long, rooting at the nodes. Leaf stalks are 0.5-1 mm long. Leaf-blades circular-ovate, 1-5 x 1-4.5 mm, rounded to notched at the tip, obliquely shallowly heart-shaped at the base, entire, pale green. Stipules are fused above and beneath to form a triangular white scale 0.5 mm long. The inflorescence is a cyathium with scalloped white petal-like appendages surrounding the actual flowers. A red nectar gland is at the base of each appendage, and at the center of the cyathium are several male flowers around one female flower. The fruit is a lobed, spherical capsule, 1.5-1.8 × 1.6-1.9 mm, smooth, hairless. Matted Sandmat is native to the Americas, now naturalized in parts of India. Flowering: September-May.

Identification credit: Tanay Bose
Photographed in Delhi.
• Is this flower misidentified? If yes,