Amaranthaceae
Digera

Digera muricata (L.) Mart.

First published in Nova Acta Phys.-Med. Acad. Caes. Leop.-Carol. Nat. Cur. 13: 285 (1826)
This species is accepted
The native range of this species is Egypt to E. Kenya and Malesia. It is an annual and grows primarily in the seasonally dry tropical biome.

Descriptions

Amaranthaceae, C.C. Townsend. Flora of Tropical East Africa. 1985

Morphology General Habit
Annual herb, (12–)15–50(–70) cm., simple or with ascending branches from near the base; stem and branches glabrous or very sparingly pilose, with pale ridges.
Morphology Leaves
Leaf-blade narrowly linear to broadly ovate or rarely subrotund, (1.2–)2–6(–9) × (0.2–)0.6–3(–5) cm., glabrous or the petiole and principal veins of the lower surface of the leaf spreading hairy, acute or acuminate at the apex, gradually or (in broader-leaved forms) rapidly narrowed to the base; petiole slender, in the lower leaves up to ± 5 cm., shorter in the upper leaves.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Inflorescences
Flowers in long and slender, or shorter and denser long-pedunculate axillary racemes, up to ± 30 cm. long, laxer below; peduncles slender, the lower up to ± 14 cm., both they and the inflorescence axis glabrous or sparingly spreading hairy; bracts persistent, ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, 1–2.75 mm., glabrous, membranous with a green or brownish percurrent midrib, each subtending a sessile or subsessile partial inflorescence of 3 flowers.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers
Flowers glabrous, white tinged with pink to carmine or red, more rarely greenish white. Central flower fertile:2 firm navicular outer perianth-segments ± 3–4.5 mm. long, oval or oblong, 3–12-nerved, acute, mucronate; the 2–3 inner segments slightly shorter, more delicate, blunt or erose, 1–3-nerved, hyaline with a darker central vitta; stamens subequalling or shorter than the style; style ± 1.5–4 mm., the 2 stigmas finally recurved. Lateral flowers appressed, 1-bracteolate, bracteoles similar in form to the bract, these flowers much reduced and increasingly so in the upper part of the spike (sometimes absent), modified into accrescent antler-shaped scales, scales with the lateral lobes narrow to broad and wing-like.
Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits
Fruit subglobose, slightly compressed, 2–2.5 mm., bluntly keeled along each side, furnished throughout with verrucae or ridges, surmounted by a thick circular rim or a corona of short firm processes; style persistent.
[FTEA]

Extinction risk predictions for the world's flowering plants to support their conservation (2024). Bachman, S.P., Brown, M.J.M., Leão, T.C.C., Lughadha, E.N., Walker, B.E. https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nph.19592

Conservation
Predicted extinction risk: not threatened. Confidence: confident
[AERP]

M. Thulin et al. Flora of Somalia, Vol. 1-4 [updated 2008] https://plants.jstor.org/collection/FLOS

Morphology General Habit
Plant (5–)12–50(–70) cm, simple or with ascending branches from near the base, stem and branches glabrous or sparingly pilose
Morphology Leaves
Leaf-blade narrowly linear to broadly ovate, (1.2–)2–6(–9) x (0.2–)0.6–3(–5) cm, glabrous or spreading-hairy along the lower surface of the primary venation, acute or acuminate, petiolate
Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Tepal
Outer tepals of fertile flower 3–4.5 mm, ovate or oblong, 3–12-nerved; (2–)3 inner tepals slightly shorter, blunt or erose, 1–3-nerved, hyaline with a darker central vitta
Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers Gynoecium Style
Style 1.5–4 mm, the stigmas finally recurved
Morphology Reproductive morphology Flowers
Lateral flowers much reduced (more so upwards and sometimes only single fertile flowers present in the upper part of the spike), modified into antler-shaped scales, the lateral lobes narrow to broad and wing-like in fruit Flowers white tinged with pink to carmine, more rarely greenish-white, in long-pedunculate slender or stouter racemes
Morphology Reproductive morphology Fruits
Fruit subglobose, ± verrucose, crowned by a thick circular rim or corona of short firm processes.
Vernacular
Arab-lohad, fiideey-malabeey, geed gindhir, ginei-malovi (Somali)
[FSOM]

Sources

  • Angiosperm Extinction Risk Predictions v1

    • Angiosperm Threat Predictions
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0

  • Flora of Somalia

    • Flora of Somalia
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Flora of Tropical East Africa

    • Flora of Tropical East Africa
    • http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0

  • Herbarium Catalogue Specimens

    • Digital Image © Board of Trustees, RBG Kew http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/

  • Kew Backbone Distributions

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2024. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Names and Taxonomic Backbone

    • The International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants 2024. Published on the Internet at http://www.ipni.org and https://powo.science.kew.org/
    • © Copyright 2023 International Plant Names Index and World Checklist of Vascular Plants. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0

  • Kew Science Photographs

    • Copyright applied to individual images