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The Western Australian Herbarium’s collections management system, WAHerb, and DBCA’s flora taxonomic names application, WACensus, have been set to read-only mode since 1 October 2025. Recent taxonomic changes are not currently being reflected in Florabase, herbarium collections, or the census. Due to the rapidly approaching holiday season and associated agency and facility soft closures, along with the substantial work involved in data mapping, cleaning, and verification, the migration to the new collection management software is not expected to occur before 1 March 2026, when a further update will be provided. Please reach out to us if you have any questions or concerns.

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Achyranthes L.

Reference
Sp.Pl. [Linnaeus] 2:204 (1753)
Name Status
Current
Image

Scientific Description

Family Amaranthaceae.

Habit and leaf form. Erect or straggling, woody herbs. Annual, or perennial; plants with neither basal nor terminal concentrations of leaves. Young stems tetragonal. Leaves opposite; petiolate; simple. Leaf blades entire; elliptic, or ovate, or obovate; pinnately veined. Leaves without stipules. Leaf blade margins entire. Leaf anatomy. Hairs present, or absent.

Reproductive type, pollination. Fertile flowers hermaphrodite, or functionally male and functionally female. Unisexual flowers present, or absent. Plants hermaphrodite, or monoecious.

Inflorescence and flower features. Flowers aggregated in ‘inflorescences’; in spikes. The terminal inflorescence unit cymose. Inflorescences terminal; more or less slender, lengthening during flowering with the lower flowers becoming more distant. Flowers sessile (becoming reflexed after flowering); bracteate; bracteolate. Bracteoles spiny. Flowers regular; cyclic. Free hypanthium absent. Hypogynous disk absent. Perianth sepaline; 5. Calyx present; 5; polysepalous; glabrous; regular; green, or red to pink (tinged); dry and membranous, indurate in fruit, especially at the base; persistent; with the median member posterior. Sepals ovate. Corolla absent. Fertile stamens present, or absent. Androecium 2–5. Androecial members all equal, or markedly unequal (by misinterpretation); coherent; 1 - adelphous (the filaments connate basally forming a staminal cup); 1 -whorled. Androecium exclusively of fertile stamens (the true androecium alternating with quadrate to broadly quadrate-spathulate ‘pseudostaminodes’, these simple and dentate or fimbriate, or furnished with a variably developed dorsal scale). Stamens 2–5; oppositisepalous. Anthers dehiscing via longitudinal slits; introrse; bilocular. Pollen shed as single grains. Gynoecium 2–3 carpelled. The pistil 1 celled. Gynoecium syncarpous; eu-syncarpous; superior. Ovary unilocular; 1 locular. Gynoecium stylate. Styles 1. Stigmas 1; capitate. Placentation basal. Ovules in the single cavity 1; pendulous; non-arillate; campylotropous.

Fruit and seed features. Fruit indehiscent; capsular-indehiscent (a utricle, ellipsoidal, with truncate apex, falling with persistent perianth and bracteoles). Capsules circumscissile. Seeds cylindric; non-endospermic (strictly speaking). Perisperm present (abundant, mealy). Embryo well differentiated. Cotyledons 2. Embryo curved. Testa smooth (usually shiny).

Special features. Perianth (calyx) glabrous outside.