Brazilian joyweed

Gomphrena brasiliana Linnaeus, Cent. Pl. II, 13. 1756

Herbs or subshrubs, annual or perennial, 5-6 dm. Stems erect, villous, glabrate. Leaves sessile; blade ovate to lanceolate, 1-7 × 0.7-1 cm, herbaceous, villous. Inflorescences terminal and axillary, pedunculate; heads white, globose, 0.7-1 cm diam.; bracts keeled, shorter than to equaling tepals. Flowers: tepals monomorphic, green to stramineous, lanceolate, 3-4 mm, apex acuminate, villous, hairs not barbed; stamens 5; pseudostaminodes ligulate, margins fimbriate. Utricles included within tepals, brown, ellipsoid, 2 mm, apex acute. Seeds ovoid-oblong, 1.4 mm.

Flowering spring. Sandy, wet, disturbed sites; 0-10 m; introduced; Fla.; Mexico; West Indies; Central America (Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua); South America.