Mullu Honagonne / Khaki Weed
Alternanthera pungens
- Habit
- Herb
- Found in India
- Karnataka, Telangana, Tamil Nadu & more
- Flowering
- Throughout the year
How to identify Mullu Honagonne
Identify Mullu Honagonne by combining habit, leaf characters, flower or fruit details, location, and its family pattern. Do not rely on one feature alone.
- Look for a herb habit.
- Check the distinctive field mark: Sharp spiny flower clusters (khaki weed).
- Confirm leaf shape: Simple oval/lance-shaped, small.
- Confirm flower colour: White.
- In season, compare flowering and fruiting time: Throughout the year.
- In India, compare location records such as Karnataka, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand and nearby regions.
- Confirm it sits within the Amaranthaceae family pattern, then compare close relatives before deciding it is Mullu Honagonne.
Plant Details
- Scientific name
- Alternanthera pungens
- Genus
- Alternanthera
- Family
- Amaranthaceae
- Habit
- Herb
- Native to
- America, a wide-spread weed in Tropics and subtropics
- Distribution
- Tropics & sub-tropics of the World
- Found in India
- Karnataka, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Delhi, Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, West Bengal
- Flowering & fruiting
- Throughout the year
- Conservation status
- Not Evaluated (NE)
Leaf characters
- Leaf shape
- Simple oval/lance-shaped, smallrecorded
Typical of the family
Characters marked “recorded” are for Mullu Honagonne itself; the rest are typical of the Amaranthaceae family.
Flower & fruit characters
- Flower colour
- Whiterecorded“Clusters of small white flowers form in the .” — Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0
Typical of the family
- Flower symmetry
- Actinomorphic (radially symmetrical)
- Inflorescence
- Spike
- Fruit
- Achene
Characters marked “recorded” are for Mullu Honagonne itself; the rest are typical of the Amaranthaceae family — flowering plants only.
Local Names
- Kannada
- ಮುಳ್ಳುಹೊನಗೊನ್ನೆ Mullu honagonne
About Mullu Honagonne
Khaki Weed (Alternanthera pungens) belongs to the Amaranthaceae family, where it grows as a herb. In India it has been recorded in Karnataka, Telangana, Tamil Nadu and 9 other states. It flowers and fruits through much of the year.
Amaranthaceae
Amaranth family
Mullu Honagonne belongs to the Amaranthaceae family.
The illustration represents the family — not necessarily this exact species.
Explore the Amaranthaceae familySnap it. Know it.
Point your camera at Mullu Honagonne or any plant and SASYA identifies it instantly — on-device, offline, and private.
Common plant problems
If you are starting from symptoms instead of a diagnosis, use the plant disease symptom checker to narrow the cause before treating.
All plant problem & care guides