Yellow joyweed (Alternanthera flavecens)

Benikan or yellow joyweed (Alternanthera flavecens) is a plant species in Amaranthaceae, perennial shrub, upright, 60-150 cm tall, rounded stems, long slender, spread upward, branching to form a trident, the tip ends with flowers, green with whitish scales.

A. flavecens have oval or lancet or elliptical or long leaves, in pairs, 1.8-8 cm long, 0.5-3 cm wide, herbaceous, hairless or hairy, a bone in the middle with several pulses, shiny, surface the top is dark green and the lower surface is pale green.

Flowers in the inflorescence and axillary terminals. Yellowish white head, subglobose to cylinder, length 0.9-2.5 cm, width 0.9-1 cm. Monomorphic tepal, green, lanceolate, 3.4-4.7 mm, acute peak, villi and non-thorny.

Yellow Joyweed has five stamens, pseudostaminodes ligulate and margin laciniate. Utrikel included in tepal, greenish yellow, ellipsoid and size 2.5 mm. The seeds are ovoid and 1.2-1.3 mm in size.

Benikan blooms throughout the year, grows into shrubs and spreads covering primary and secondary forest floors, waterways, roadside, agricultural land, abandoned lands and shady places.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Tracheophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Magnoliopsida
Order: Caryophyllales
Family: Amaranthaceae
Subfamily: Gomphrenoideae
Genus: Alternanthera
Species: Alternanthera flavescens

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