Lindernia parviflora (Roxb.) Haines

Tropical Africa, Himalaya, India, Burma, Indo-China.

200-1800 m

parviflora: small-flowered

Erect, decumbent or ascending annual herb, 5-25 cm tall but usually smaller. Stems hairless or slightly pubescent, diffusely branched. Leaves opposite, mostly sessile, very variable, ovate, lanceolate or elliptic, 2-20 mm long, rarely longer, rounded or pointed at the apex; margin entire or sometimes shallowly toothed in larger leaves. Flowers axillary or in terminal racemes. Pedicel slender, 5-12 mm long, longer in fruit. Calyx 2-4 mm long, divided almost to the base into linear-lanceolate lobes. Corolla white to pale blue with darker blue markings, 3-12 mm long; upper lip shallowly emarginate or bifid; lower lip 3-lobed. Stamens 4 with 2 fertile. Capsule obovate-ellipsoid or subglobose, up to 4 × 3 mm.

Widespread in tropical Africa, South Africa, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, India and Vietnam.