Alternanthera pycnantha (Benth.) Standl.

Achyranthes pycnantha (Benth.) Standley, Jour. Wash. Acad
Sci. S: 74. 1915.
Brandesia pycnantha Benth. Bot. Voy. Sulph. 157. 1844. Telanthera pycnantha Moq. in DC. Prodr. 13 2 : 376. 1849. Telanthera mollis B. L. Robinson, Proc. Am. Acad. 35: 324. 1900.
Plants much branched, the branches slender or stout, ascending, angulate, strigillose or shortvillous or soon glabrous; petioles stout, 3-12 mm. long; leaf-blades ovate, oval, or lanceelliptic, 6-16 cm. long, 2-5 cm. wide, long-acuminate or attenuate at the apex, acute at the base, rather thick, bright-green, sparsely strigillose or glabrous, sometimes pilose; peduncles axillary and terminal, usually branched, glabrate, 1-5 cm. long; spikes globose to cylindric, 1-3 cm. long, 10-12 mm. thick, the flowers stramineous; bracts and bractlets ovate, acute, about one third as long as the sepals, short-pilose; sepals narrowly oblong, acute, 6—7 mm. long, densely pilose with rather long hairs, 3-nerved, the tips erect or incurved; staminodia ligulate, exceeding the anthers, two thirds as long as the sepals, lacerate at the apex; style elongate, the stigma entire.
Type locality: Acapulco, Guerrero.
Distribution: Pacific coast of Mexico, from Colima to Oaxaca.