Tropical Chinchweed

Pectis elongata H. B. K. Nov. Gen. & Sp. 4: 262. 1820
Pedis stride Willd.; Less. Linnaea 6: 710, as synonym. 1831.
Lorentea polycephala Gardn. Lond. Jour. Bot. 5: 240. 1846.
Pedis floribunda A. Rich, in Sagra, Hist. Cuba 11: 36. 1850.
Pedis ciliaris A. Rich, in Sagra, Hist. Cuba 11: 36. 1850.
Pedis Plumieri Griseb. Fl. Brit. W. Ind. 378, in part. 1861.
Cryptopetalon elongaium Cass.; Urban, Symb. Ant. 5: 283, as synonym. 1907.
An erect annual; stem 1.5-7.5 dm. high, more or less angled, scabrous under the nodes, with numerous spreading or ascending branches; leaves linear, 2—6 cm. long, 1.5-3 mm. wide, mucronate or bristle-tipped, with 3-10 pairs of bristles near the base; glands many, in 4-6 irregular rows; heads cymose-paniculate; peduncles slender, 0.5-2 cm. long; involucre 5-6 mm. high, 4—5 mm. broad, turbinate; bracts 5, purplish, Unear, acuminate, obtusely keeled at the base, glabrous; ray-flowers 5; ligules 2.5-3 mm. long, yellow, tinged with purple; diskflowers 5-7; corollas about 2.5 mm. long; achenes 2-2.5 mm. long, hirsutulous on the angles or glabrate; pappus-bristles of the disk-flowers 8-24, of the ray-flowers 5-20, capillary, scabrous, the longer 4 mm. long.
Type locality: Popayan. Colombia.
Distribution: Cuba, Jamaica, and Hispaniola; Yucatan and Guatemala to Guiana and Peru.

Pectis oerstediana Rydberg, sp. nov
P«c/(i/a/«5caM0 Benth. in Oerst.Vidensk.Meddel. 1852:69. 1852. Not P. taliscanaH.Si. A. 1837. A slender perennial; stem much branched, 3-6 dm. high, terete, purplish, glabrous; leaves linear, 3-5 cm. long, 2-3 mm. wide, acute, with scattered glands and 2-5 pairs of bristles at the base; heads axillary and terminal, solitary; peduncles slender, 1.5 cm. long or less; involucre turbinate, 5 mm. high, 3-4 mm. broad; bracts about 5, acuminate, linear, purplish, keeled; ray-flowers about 5; ligules oblong, often purplish, 1.5-2 mm. long; disk-flowers 3-6; corollas fully 2 mm. long; achenes 2.5 mm. long, hispidulous; pappus of the disk-flowers of 5 or 6 (rarely 7 or 8), of the ray-flowers of 3 or 4 (rarely 5), hispidulous bristles, 2-2.5 mm. long.
Type collected at Realejo, Nicaragua, 1903, C. F. Baker 2137 {U. S. Nat. Herb.). Distribution: Nicaragua and Costa Rica.

Pectis elongata, the tropical cinchweed, is a summer blooming annual plant of the genus Pectis, found in the West Indies as well as in South and Central America. Tropical cinchweed is burned as a mosquito repellent.