Achyranthes aspera L.

Centrostachys aspera (L.) Standley, Jour. Wash. Acad. Sci
5: 75. 1915.
Achyranlhes aspera L. Sp. PL 204. 1753. Achyranthes argentea Lam. Encyc. 1: 545. 1785. Achyranthes sicula Roth, Catal. Bot. 1: 39. 1797. Cadelaria sicula Raf. Fl. Tell. 3: 39. 1837. Stachyarpagophora aspera Maza, Fl. Haban. 93. 1897.
Ascending or decumbent annual or perennial; stems simple or branched, 3-10 dm. long, the branches ascending, quadrangular, pilose; petioles 4-25 mm. long; leaf-blades oval, ovateoval, or ovate, 4-20 cm. long, 2-9 cm. wide, rather abruptly acuminate or long-acuminate at the apex, obtuse to abruptly acuminate at the base, thin, green and pilose-strigose on the upper surface, paler beneath and pilose-sericeous, often densely so; flowers spicate, the spikes terminal or axillary, 4—30 cm. long, 10-12 mm. thick, acute, the rachis densely white-villous ; bracts and bractlets glabrous, ovate, long-aristate; sepals lanceolate, 6-7 mm. long, longacuminate, not nerved, subcartilaginous, glabrous; staminodia slightly shorter than the filaments, sub quadrilateral, obtuse, entire, produced dorsally into a laciniate keel; style slightly longer than the stamens; utricle oblong, truncate at the apex, glabrous; seed narrowly oblong, 3, mm. long, fuscous, dull.
Type locality: Sicily.
Distribution: Adventive in southern Florida; West Indies; central Mexico to Guatemala; also from the southern coast of Europe to Africa and southern Asia.