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A new species of Alternanthera from Kerala (SW-India), named Alternanthera indica, is described and illustrated. A detailed description, photographs, and drawings are provided. The new species resembles A. carcasana, A. paronychioides var. robusta, A. pungens, A. sessilis, and A. tenella for sharing habit and sessile synflorescences, but it differs from these species in several characters (i.e. shape and size of leaves, sepal length and hairiness, and appendages on the androecial tube margin and length).

Gomphrena Linnaeus (1753: 224) (Gomphrenoideae Schinz, Amaranthaceae Juss.) is a genus including about 120 species, with center of diversity in the New World, and higher species richness in Central Andes, in argentinean and bolivian Puna, and Caatinga, and Cerrado habitats in Brazil (see e.g., Muller & Borsch 2005; Sánchez del Pino et al. 2009).