Volume 15 > Part 1 > Year 2021 > Page 192 > Rubiaceae > Dentella

Dentella repens (L.) J.R.Forst. & G.Forst.wfo-1200061196

Char. Gen. Pl.: pl. 13. 1775; Hook.f., Fl. Brit. India 3: 42. 1880; Pit. in Lecomte, Fl. Indo-Chine 3: 75, fig. 8,6–9. 1922; Ridl., Fl. Malay Penins. 2: 44. 1923; Craib, Fl. Siam. 2: 26. 1932; Verdc., Kew Bull. 37: 545. 1983; Tao Chen & C.M.Taylor in Z.Y.Wu et al., Fl. China 19: 97. 2011; Harwood in K.M.Wong et al., Fl. Singapore 13: 59, fig, 13. 2019.— Oldenlandia repens L., Mant. Pl. 1: 40. 1767.— Hedyotis repens (L.) Lam., Tabl. Encycl. 1: 271. 1792.

Accepted Name : This is currently accepted.

Description : Creeping, much-branched herbs, often forming dense mats or cushions up to 0.5 m in diam; stems obscurely 4-angled to terete, mostly glabrous. Stipules to ca 0.5 mm high, truncate, entire. Leaves elliptic, oblong-lanceolate or oblong-obovate, 2–10 mm by 1–5 mm, base and apex acute, glabrous or sparsely hairy on midrib beneath, lateral veins inconspicuous; petiole 2–3 mm long, glabrous. Flowers in leaf axils, 1 per node (flowering nodes alternating with non-flowering nodes), rarely terminal; pedicels 0.5–2 mm long. Calyx lobes erect, triangular-lanceolate, 0.5–1.5 mm long, acute. Corolla white, 5–15 mm long, glabrous on the outside; tube hairy around the throat; lobes much shorter than tube, often with a purplish spot at base. Stamens inserted near base of tube; anthers subsessile, < 1 mm long. Ovary 2–3 mm high (densely) pilose to glabrous; style plus 2 coherent stigmas 1.5–6 mm long. Fruits globose, 3–4 mm in diam., densely to sparsely covered by stiff, white hairs to glabrous; crowned by slightly enlarged, erect calyx lobes. Seeds 0.3–0.5 mm long.

Distribution : India (lectotype), Nepal, Sri Lanka to China, Taiwan, throughout Malesia, to Australia and Oceania, adventive in N America (United States, Mexico)and Mauritius.

Notes: 1. Plants show considerable, apparently habitat dependent variability. For this reason neither leaf sizes and shapes nor floral characters, previously used to separate var. repens from var. serpyllifolia [see below], may provide reliable distinguishing characters.

2. Probably undercollected and more widely distributed than the available specimens suggest.