Anoda cristata

This is an annual herb reaching a maximum erect height between one half and one meter. The stem is ridged and branching. The plant is variable in morphology, especially in leaf shape, but leaves are usually somewhat triangular, and hairy. Solitary flowers grow in the leaf axils on long pedicels. The flower is 2 to 3 centimeters wide, with pointed green to reddish sepals and 5 petals, which may be blueish-purple or reddish-pink in color. The fruit is a bristly, disc-shaped capsule with 9 to 20 segments. Each segment produces a seed. This is sometimes an agricultural weed, especially of soybeans. It is tolerated as a weed of crop fields in parts of Mexico, and even fostered, because it is eaten and used as a source of medicinal remedies.