Plant is a native of Europe commonly found over the greater parts of India as a winter season weed, mostly in wheat field.
It is an annual, much branched, diffusely spreading herb with watery latex.
It shows much variation in height; i.e. 15-60 cm.
Leaves are glaucous, segments linear or oblong linear, pointed at the tip, rarely broader than 1 mm short.
Flowers are small, rose to purple in colour, borne in racemes of 15-20 flowers.
Racemes are very often sessile and short.
The fruit is slightly elongated and bracts are much longer.
Sepals are absent or minute (about 0.5 mm long), triangular-ovate acuminate and whitish.
Corolla is very small, about 4 mm long, white; upper petal with narrow wings, inner petals with a purple or greenish tip. Fruit is 2 mm long and slightly broader, subround-obovate, very obtuse or subtruncate, obscurely short articulate, rugose when dry and one seeded.
Seeds are dark brown in colour having a bitter acrid and astringent taste.
This plant might be poisonous
How to get rid of:
It is often more effective with tall herbaceous plants, such as
grasses, and some woody weeds to first slash the area and only
spray the re-growth. Allow 3–4 weeks for new lush growth and
then spray. Most chemicals works best when plants are healthy
and actively growing. By removing dry stems and forcing the plant
to put on new growth the uptake of herbicide will be improved.
