Blutaparon vermiculare (L.) Mears

Plants perennial or occasionally annual, 3-20 dm. Stems mostly prostrate with ascending branches, much-branched, gla-brous. Leaf blades linear to linear lanceolate or oblanceolate, 15-55 × 2-12 mm. Inflorescences: heads white or pinkish (drying silvery white), globose or cylindric, 7-30 × 7-10 mm; bracteoles slightly shorter than flowers. Flowers very short-pedicellate; tepals connate basally, white, oblong, dorsiventrally compressed, thickened basally, 3-5 mm, chartaceous, apex of outer tepals obtuse, apex of inner tepals acute, spinose-tipped, densely villose. Utricles indehiscent or splitting irregularly, included in tepals, 1.3 mm. Seeds 0.8-1 mm.

It is a tropical plant. It grows along the coast. It grows on sandy beachheads and dry mangroves in West Africa. It grows in wet grassland savannah. It can be along river banks and in near small pools.

The leaves and stems are fleshy and are cooked and eaten.