Oxygonum sinuatum Dammer

A diffuse, decumbent or erect, weedy annual.. Stems glabrous to pubescent, green to reddish brown.. Ocreae reddish, up to 5.5 mm. long, truncate, usually fringed with setae, the leaf inserted in the upper half and often near the apex.. Leaves petiolate, in outline ovate, ovate-elliptic, ovate-lanceolate or elliptic-lanceolate, but usually deeply incised with rounded or acute lobes, often panduriform or lyrate, narrowed to each end, commonly 4 × 1.5 cm., but up to 6 × 2.7 cm., usually pustular on the undersurface, otherwise glabrous or shortly pilose on the veins.. Petioles 1–2 cm. long.. Inflorescence variably elongated, up to 28 cm. long (or more?), the stalk up to 2 mm. thick.. Bracts up to 6 cm. apart, fringed with setae.. Pedicels of hermaphrodite flowers stumpy, scarcely filiform, exceeding the bracts by 0–1 (–3) mm.; those of male flowers ± filiform, withering.. Flowers white or pink, slightly heterostylous, i.e. long-styled stigmas reaching only to the tips of the anthers or to slightly beyond, and short-styled stigmas reaching to or nearly to the anther bases (see Fig. 5/9).. Tepals ovate-elliptic, 2.5–3 mm. long; tube 1–1.5 mm. long.. Fruit fusiform, (1–) 2–4 to each bract, erect or spreading but scarcely pendulous, 5.0–6.5 mm. long when mature, pubescent or papillose, more rarely glabrous, with three spreading prickles 1.5–1.75 (–2) mm. long arising on the angles centrally or more often from just below the middle (rarely with 3 smaller, intervening prickles on the faces).

A tropical plant. It often grows on sandy soils. In Kenya it grows from sea level to 2,400 m altitude. In Uganda it is in areas with an annual rainfall of 1,000-1,600 mm.

The leaves are cooked and eaten. They are slimy. They are made into a sauce or side dish. They are also eaten raw for their acid taste. The leaves can be dried and powdered for later use.

Plants can be grown by seeds.