Indian Almond

Indian Almond

family ; Combretaceae

Characteristic features:

Habit : Herbs annual or biennial, with few fibrous roots; stem unbranched, extremely short, sometimes to ca. 1 cm when growing in shade.

Leaves: forming a flat rosette, subsessile or petiolate; stipule ca. 3-7 mm, connate with petiole at base, 3-fid, lobes laciniate; petiole short; lamina ca. 6-10 × 5-7 mm, attenuate at base, fimbriate at apex, yellowish green or red to reddish violet, cuneate to obovate-spatulate, with glandular trichomes or glabrous.

Inflorescence: scapiform; racemes 1 or 2, ca. 6-22 cm, 2-19-flowered; bracts ca. 1-3 mm, simple, hastate; pedicels erect, ca. 1-7 mm; sepals 5, ca. 2-3 mm, united at base, light green, red, or reddish violet, narrowly oblong, striate, tuberculate, abaxially with short, glandular hairs and white glands; petals ca. 4 × 2-3 mm, white to light red to reddish violet, obovate;stamens 5, ca. 3 mm; ovary subglobose, glabrous; placentas 6; styles 6, ca. 2-3 mm, filiform, incurved; stigma toothlike.

Capsule:5- or 6-valved.

Seeds: dark-brown to black, veined.

Flowering season : January – March