Mauranthemum paludosum (Poir.) Vogt & Oberpr. // Infraspecifics: Mauranthemum paludosum ssp. paludosum / Heterotypic Synonyms: Hymenostemma paludosum Pomel, it is an annual herb, up to 2-20(30) cm, glabrous, with stems erect or ascending, simple or branched in their lower half, grooved, green, usually reddish-brown at the base. Leaves regularly distributed, green. The lower leaves 1.1-7 x 0.5-2 cm, with a blade obovate to elliptic, serrate, pinnatipartite or pinnatisect, with entire or serrate lobes and a petiole 0.5-1.5(3) cm, slightly winged, entire or slightly serrate, barely enlarged at the base. The middle leaves elliptic, oblong or obovate, serrate or pinnatipartite, rarely entire or pinnatisect, sub sessile or sessile. The upper leaves narrowly elliptic or oblong, serrate or entire, sessile. Capitula 1-2.5(3) cm in diameter, solitary, with a peduncle 0.6-3.3 cm long. Involucre 0.5-1.3(1.8) cm in diameter, hemispherical. Bracts arranged in 3 or 4 series, light green with a dark green central area, membranous at the margin. The outer ones oblong to narrowly ovate, auriculate at the base, usually brown or very dark, almost black, at the apex and basal ends, exceptionally pale in these areas. The middle ones 4-5.5 x c. 2 mm, oblong, more or less panduriform, broadly rounded at the apex and with lunular, membranous margins, brown or very dark brown, almost black, rarely pale, or narrowed at the apex and then only with membranous margins in the distal part. The inner ones elliptical, in the distal half with membranous and dark margins. Receptacle conical. Ray flowers (10)15-20 per head, female or neuter; corolla with limb (5)7-12 x 2.5-4(5) mm, elliptic, white, frequently yellowish at the base; tube c. 1.5 mm, slightly dorsiventrally compressed. Florets with corolla 2-2.5-(2.7) mm. Achenes of ray flowers narrowly cylindrical, more or less smooth; those of florets (1.8)2-2.5(3) mm, narrowly obovoid, more or less ellipsoid or cylindrical, straight or somewhat incurved, with 9-10 ribs. Pappus of ray flowers in a crown 1.5-2.2 mm, dark in the upper part, absent in the florets.
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