11. Iresine P. Browne, Civ. Nat. Hist. Jamaica. 358. 1756.
[name conserved]
Bloodleaf [Greek eiresione, a wreath or staff entwined with strips of wool, alluding to the long woolly hairs often encircling the calyx]
Steven E. Clemants
Herbs, shrubs or vines, annual or perennial, polygamous or dioecious. Stems erect to prostrate, often trailing. Leaves opposite or alternate, petiolate; blade elliptic, ovate, or lanceolate to lance-oblong, margins entire or serrulate, glabrous or pubescent. Inflorescences terminal, diffuse, open panicles of spikes and axillary spikes; bracts and bracteoles membranous. Flowers unisexual; tepals 5, basally connate or distinct, 1-3-veined; stamens mostly 5; filaments connate basally; anthers 2-locular; pseudostaminodes absent or short; ovule 1; style 1, ca. 0.2 mm; stigmas 2-3, slender or capitate. Utricles globose, membranous, dehiscing irregularly. Seeds 1, dark red or reddish-brown, lenticular. x = 15.
Species ca. 70 (5 in the flora): mostly littoral in tropical and subtropical America (including Galápagos Islands), Asia (s Japan), and w Africa.
SELECTED REFERENCE
Henrickson, J. and S. D. Sundberg. 1986. On the submersion of Dicraurus into Iresine (Amaranthaceae). Aliso 11: 355-364.
