SHAHINA GHAZANFAR

Convolvulus rhyniospermus Illustration Credit: S. Hameed

Annual herbs, 15-40 cm, with erect or procumbent, appressed-pubescent, simple or branched stems. Leaves 10-37 mm long, sparsely appressed villous, ciliate, sessile or subsessile, oblong-lanceolate to oblanceolate or elliptic, subacute to acute, cuneate. Flowering from the base of the stems. Flowers almost sessile, 4-6 in subsessile or shortly pedunculate heads, peduncles slender. Bracts ovate. Sepals 5-8 mm long, ovate to lanceolate, acute to acuminate, densely brown-villous. Corolla white, c. 5mm long, shorter than the calyx, glabrous. Style persistent, ovary glabrous. Capsule globose, 4-valved, c. 4 mm in diameter, membranous. Seeds brown, 2 mm long, tuberculate.

Fl. Per.: Sept.

Type: N. Sudan, Nubia, Kotschy 235 (holo.: G-DC.),.

D-4 Baluchistan: nr. Quetta, Muslimbagh (Hindubagh), M.B. Zaman 797 (PPFI-B), F-5 Sind: Khadro nr. Nawabshah, M.B. Zaman 292 (PPFI-B), Scinde, Stocks 376 (K), id., Dalzell 56 (K), C-4 Karachi, Mango Pir, A. Rahman 25686 (RAW) , Karachi University, M.A. Siddiqi 2577 (RAW), Kalri Lake, 7 miles from Thatta, 10.11.56, A. Jalis s.n. (RAW), Jamidar ka landa, Stocks 474 (K), hills at Nagar Parkar, Qaiser, Ghafoor, Husain 3971 (KUH), Thano Bulle Khan, 20.9.1959, S. Ali s.n. (KUH), Jangothi, common in waste fields, Jafri 4110 (KUH), nr. Karachi Police Chowki, Sultanul Abedin 5493 (KUH), Nizamabad Jafri 816 (E).

Distribution: From Africa to N. Western India and Pakistan.

Common in Karachi and Sind, in dry arid areas. The species has a very variable leaf shape. Resembles Convolvulus glomeratus but can be distinguished by its subsessile few-flowered heads and smaller corolla.