Kansas Wildflowers and Grasses - Rhombic copperleaf

RHOMBIC COPPERLEAF

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Acalypha rhomboidea Raf.

Ottawa County, Kansas

Annual

Height: 6-24 inches

Family: Euphorbiaceae - Spurge Family

Flowering Period: July, August, September,October

Stems:

Erect, brached, antrorsely pubescent to spreading-pubescent and sometimes also sparsely hirsute.

Leaves:

Alternate; petiole .2 to 2.8 inches; blade ovate to broadly rhombic to broadly lanceolate, 1.2 to 4 inches long, .2 to 2 inches wide, with 3 prominent veins arising from base, base obtuse acute, margins serrate, apex acute or acuminate, surfaces sparsely appressed-pubescent.

Inflorescences:

Spikes, axillary, pistillate and staminate flowers in same spike, pistillate proximal and staminate distal.

Flowers:

Bracts of pistillate flowers with (5-)7(-11) triangular to lanceolate teeth, sparsely pubsecent and glandular-hispid, especially along margins, enlarging in fruit. Staminate flowers: sepals 4, distinct; stamens 4-8. Pistillate flowers: sepals 3, distinct; petals 0; styles divided, distinct or essentially so.

Fruits:

Capsules concealed by bracts, 3-seeded, .08 to .1 inch, smooth, pubescent. Seeds orange to dark brown, ovoid, .06 to .08 inch, with longitudinal rows of minute pits.

Habitat:

Moist oak-hickory forests and woodlands, floodplain forests, river and stream banks, shorelines of ponds and reservoirs, tallgrass prairie ravines, occasionally old fields and other disturbed sites.

Distribution:

East 2/3 of Kansas

Origin:

Native

Uses:

The seeds of Acalypha species make up a small portion of the diet of the mourning dove, American pipit, Botteri sparrow, and swamp sparrow.

Comments:

Acalypha, unattractive and touch, alluding to the resemblance of the leaves to those of nettles and rhomboidea, rhombic, alluding to the leaves.

Rhombic copperleaf flowers