银花苋 yin hua xian

Herbs annual, erect. Stem white villous. Petiole 1-1.5 cm, long gray hairy; leaf blade oblong or oblong-obovate, papery, long white hairy and ciliate, narrowing toward base, margin undulate, apex acute or obtuse. Heads silvery; bracteoles purple, triangular-lanceolate, much longer than bracts. Tepals rigid after anthesis. Filaments connate into a tube, 5-parted at apex. Styles linear, shorter than tube of stamens; stigmas 2, furcate. Utricles subglobose. Fl. and fr. Feb-Jun. 2n = 26.

Roadsides, waste places. Hainan, Taiwan [pantropical].

One of us (Clemants) questions whether this is the same as Gomphrena serrata Linnaeus.