Struchium sparganophorum (L.) Kuntze

ascending, canaliculate to narrowly winged, 1-20 mm long. Inflorescences sessile, often glomerate in the axils. Heads with ca. 50 florets; involucre hemispheric, 3-5 mm long, 3-4-seriate, the bracts acuminate to subspinescent, ciliolate; corolla 1-2 mm long, purple, salverform, 3-4-lobed, the lobes ca. 0.2 mm long; stamens 3-4, the anthers oblong, 0.5-1 mm long, apically acute, basally circinate-sagittate; style 1.5-2 mm long, bifid for less than half its length, the branches acute. Achenes narrow, arcuately turbinate, 3-4-angled, 1.3-2 mm long, glabrous; pappus a cartilaginous corona, half as long as the achene, the corona shallowly lobed or entire.

Wet thickets or forest, often a weed in banana plantations, at or a little above sea level in Guatemala. Moist alluvial or sandy soil along streams or in flood plains in Peru.

The young leaves are used as a pot herb. Caution: The leaves contain alkaloids.

Plants can be grown by seeds.