Spermacoce chaetocephala
DC.
RubiaceaeSeeds/Nuts
iNaturalist · cc-by-nc-sa
(c) Marco Schmidt, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA)
(c) Marco Schmidt, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA)
iNaturalist · cc-by-nc-sa
(c) Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Department of Botany, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA)
(c) Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Department of Botany, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA)
iNaturalist · cc-by-nc-sa
(c) Marco Schmidt, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA)
(c) Marco Schmidt, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA)
What to Eat
Edible parts: Seeds
The seeds are eaten.
Where to Find It
It is a tropical plant. It grows in bushland and grassland between 690-1,170 m above sea level.
Africa, Burkina Faso, East Africa, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, West Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe,
Countries: Angola, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Benin, Botswana, Congo (DRC), Central African Republic, Congo (Republic), Cote d'Ivoire, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Djibouti, Algeria, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Gambia, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Comoros, Liberia, Lesotho, Libya, Morocco, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Seychelles, Sudan, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Somalia, South Sudan, Sao Tome & Principe, Eswatini, Chad, Togo, Tunisia, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa, Zambia, Zimbabwe
How to Identify
An erect annual herb. It grows 10-60 cm high. The stems are 4 angled. The leaf blades are 3-6 cm long by 3-8 mm wide. They are narrowly sword shaped. The fruit is a capsule 2.5 mm long. The seeds are brown and shiny. They are 2 mm long by 1 mm wide.
Names & Synonyms
Borreria compacta (Hiern) K. Schum.
References (2)
- East African Herbarium records, 1981,
- Peters, C. R., O'Brien, E. M., and Drummond, R.B., 1992, Edible Wild plants of Sub-saharan Africa. Kew. p 176
