Celosia swinhoei Hemsley.

Herbs annual, 30-100 cm tall. Stem erect, green or red, glabrous, often branched. Leaves green, often tinged red; petiole absent to 1.5 cm; leaf blade oblong-lanceolate, lanceolate, or lanceolate-linear, rarely ovate-oblong, 5-8 × 1-3 cm, base attenuate, apex acuminate or acute. Spikes narrowly cylindric or with a conic apex, 3-10 cm, not branched. Flowers dense. Bracts and bracteoles white, shiny, lanceolate, 3-4 mm, with midvein, apex acuminate. Tepals white, with a pink tip or nearly pink, then white, oblong-lanceolate, 6-10 mm, with midvein, apex acuminate. Filaments 5-6 mm, free part 2.5-3 mm; anthers purple. Ovary shortly stalked; style purple, 3-5 mm. Utricles ovoid, 3-3.5 mm, enveloped in persistent perianth. Seeds compressed-reniform, ca. 1.5 mm in diam. Fl. May-Aug, fr. Jun-Oct. 2n = 36, 72, 84*.

Hillsides, field margins, a common weed. Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Hubei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Bhutan, Cambodia, Japan, Korea, India, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Nepal, Philippines, Russia, Sikkim, Thailand, Vietnam; tropical Africa].