Common name: White Alder, Politician's Flower, White Butter Cup
Botanical name: Turnera subulata Family: Turneraceae (Yellow alder family)
White Alder is a perennial herb, often woody at the base, 30-80 cm high,
with a frequently very strong taproot. Native to West Indies, Brazil, and
Central America, White Alder sports white flowers with yellow halo around
black centers, and is naturalized in the Indian subcontinent.
Stems cylindrical, leafy over a considerable length, densely hairy. Leaves
not crowded, ovate-elliptic or ovate-oblong, very distinctly
dentate-serrate. Flowers in the higher leaf-axils. Petals with a slightly
hairy, 3-4 mm long claw, blade obovate, broadly rounded, entire, above the
claw glabrous, finally above the base much spreading or subreflexed.
| Photographed in Alibag, Maharashtra. |
Identification credit: Nandan Kalbag
|
aturalized