Boerhavia coccinea Mill.

Scarlet Spiderling; Wine Flower

Herb

Annual

Vascular

Scarlet Spiderling is an introduced herbaceous perennial in the Four-O'clock family (Nyctaginaceae). It has been found in the southern half of Alabama. Scarlet Spiderling occurs along railroads, in cracks in parking lots and sidewalks, on vacant lots, and on roadsides. It is a perennial with a tick cord-like taproot. Stems are prostrate, much branched, green in color, and pubescent with glandular and non-glandular hairs. Leaves are opposite, petiolate, ovate to lanceolate in outline, with wavy margins. The leaves are dark green above and pale green below. The leaves may be glabrous or pubescent on both surfaces. Flowers are produced in axillary or terminal inflorescences. The inflorescences are much branched and terminate in compact umbels or heads of flowers. Individual flowers are short stalked and bell shaped with 5 spreading lobes on the corolla. The corolla is a deep purple-red or wine color. The fruit is club shaped with 5 ribs. It is densely glandular pubescent. Scarlet Spiderling is native to beaches, deserts, and scrub forest of the western United States, Mexico, Central and South America, Eurasia, Africa, Australia, and on tropical and subtropical islands. This species has been collected twice in Alabama. Charles Mohr collected it in 1892 on ballast ground and along railroads in Mobile. In 2011, Alvin Diamond collected it from a weedy over-grown lot and roadside in Montgomery. It can be expected to occur in similar sites in other areas of Alabama.--A. Diamond

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Not Native

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