Dear friends
This elusive herb I photographed from open hillside above Cheshma Shahi in
Kashmir in May. The plant barely up to 80 cm tall had alternate pinnate
compound leaves up to 12 cm long, with deeply toothed leaflets, 9-13 in
number, with two stipules at base, toothed like leaflets. Flowers
unisexual, on long peduncles, forming separate globose heads; male flowers
with four broadly ovate to nearly orbicular perianth 3-5 mm long, greenish
white with membranous margin, stamens numerous hanging; female flowers with
seemingly 4 perianth, appearing three in some, green with membranous
margin, persistent; fruits of apparantly four nutlets, fused along raised
margin.
I am not able to even identify the family, which initially I thought to
be Urticaceae, but four nutlets are confusing me. Could you kindly provide
a clue.
--
Dr. Gurcharan Singh
Retired Associate Professor
SGTB Khalsa College, University of Delhi, Delhi-110007
Res: 932 Anand Kunj, Vikas Puri, New Delhi-110018.
Phone: 011-25518297 Mob: 9810359089
http://www.gurcharanfamily.com/
http://people.du.ac.in/~singhg45/
