Boerhavia elegans Choisy
Perennial, up to 50 cm tall. Stem woody, diffuse, puberulous. Leaves opposite, lanceolate to elliptic-lanceolate or ovate-oblong, 1.5-6 (-6.5) x 2.5-8mm, sessile or petiole up to 6 mm long. Scapes dichotomous, glabrous, slender above. Flowers 2 mm long. Involucral bracts linear, 1.5-2 mm long, deciduous; bract ovate, c. 1 mm long, villous. Pedicel 2-3 mm long, very slender. Perianth campanulate, pink, embedded with raphides. Stamens 3, included; filaments 1.5 mm long, slender, connate at the base. Ovary more or less ovoid, c. 1 mm long, enclosed in the persistent lower half of the perianth; style c. 1.8 mm long. Anthocarp narrow to oblong-clavate, c. 3 mm long, 5-ribbed, puberulous in the furrows.
Fl. Per.: Nov.-Dec. at lower elevations.
Type: Arabia Felix, Montis Seddar, Schimper 744 (PRC).
Distribution: Africa, S. Arabia, India and Pakistan.
A plant of dry rocky areas of Sind and Baluchistan. Reported by Duthie from Kahuta (C-7 Rawalpindi Dist., vide R.R. Stewart, Fl. Raw. Dist. 105 1958). The plant parts can be used as fodder for sheep. The leaves are diuretic and the seeds are eaten.