Carpetwee (Mollogu Verticillata)
Aizoaceae (Carpetweed family)
Group: Dicot (Broadleaf)
Branched prostrate annual herb that forms circular mats, native of tropical America. It is commonly found in cultivated fields, turf, lawns, and disturbed areas.
Seedling cotyledons are oblong, smooth, and thick. The seedlings form a basal rosette with leaves which are alternate, thickened, rounded above and narrow at the base.
Leaves of mature plants are light green, smooth, sessile (stalkless), spatulate (rounded above and narrowed to the base), in whorls of 3 to 8 at each node.
Stems are green, smooth, much-branched, forming prostrate circular mats along the soil surface. Nodes can root and form new branching that result in new rosettes.
Flowers are white or greenish white, in clusters of 2 to 5 on slender stalks. Fruit is a capsule with kidney-shaped tinny orange-red to orange-brown red seeds.
Roots are fibrous from a sparsely branched taproot.Propagation is by seed.