Dysphania (plant)
Dysphania is a plant genus in the family Amaranthaceae, distributed worldwide from the tropics and subtropics to warm-temperate regions.
The species of genus Dysphania are annual plants or short-lived perennials. They are covered with stalked or sessile glandular hairs and therefore with aromatic scent (or malodorous to some people). Some species have uniseriate multicellular trichomes, rarely becoming glabrous. The stems are erect, ascending, decumbent, or prostrate and mostly branched.
The alternate leaves are mostly petiolate, (the upper ones sometimes sessile). The leaf blade is linear, lanceolate, oblanceolate, ovate, or elliptic, often pinnately lobed, with cuneate or truncate base, anentire, dentate, or serrate margins.
The inflorescences are terminal, loose, simple or compound cymes or dense axillary glomerules. Bracts are absent or reduced. Flowers are bisexual (rarely unisexual), with up to five tepals connate only basally or fused to form sac, one to five stamens, and a superior ovary with one to three filiform stigmata.
The fruit is often enclosed in perianth. The membranous pericarp is adherent or nonadherent to the horizontal or vertical, subglobose, or lenticular seed. The seed coat is smooth or rugose. The annular or incompletely annular embryo is surrounding the copious farinose perisperm.
The genus Dysphania is distributed worldwide from the tropics and subtropics to warm-temperate regions. In Europe, the species are native, archaeophytes, or naturalized, in the northern regions absent or rarely adventive.[3]
