Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Subshrubs, prostrate, forming circular mats on lithified sand dunes.

Stems: Stems erect or ascending to prostrate, 0.2–1(–2) m long, pilose to villous, glabrate, flowering branches occasionally nodose, 0.5–2 mm in diameter.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Opposite, distichous, sometimes repand. Blades ovate–elliptic to obovate or elliptic to oblanceolate, (5–)12–25(–32) mm long, 3–12 mm wide. Apex acute to rounded, retuse or mucronulate. Base cuneate to rounded, oblique. Upper surfaces glabrous; lower surfaces pilose to villous, at least on midvein and at basal margin. Margins 3–10-denticulate on both edges with sharp hardened denticulate subpatent–antrosis. Petioles (1–)1.5–4 mm long, pilose to villous. Stipules rounded–triangular, 0.5–1 mm long, glabrous to villous, ciliate, erose.

Flowers: Flowers in cyathia solitary in the leaf axils, peduncles 0.5–1(–1.5) mm long, pilose to villous. involucre campanulate, 1–2 mm high, 1–2 mm wide, glabrous to pilose, glands 4(5), yellowish green to red, glabrous or pilose below. Flowers unisexual and highly reduced. Pistillate flowers solitary, on a gynophore; staminate flowers in 5 groups or cymules, each with 1 to several flowers. Calyx (sepals) absent. Corolla (petals) absent. Male flower reduced to a single stamen, with an articulation at junction of pedicel and filament, subtended by slender bracteoles. Ovary superior; styles green to white or red, bifid ca. ½ their length, 0.5–1 mm long, glabrous to sparsely villous; stigma thickened.

Fruit: Capsules green; 1.5–2 mm long; glabrous or sparsely tomentose; gynophores recurved; becoming erect just prior to dehiscence; exserted 1–2 mm from involucre; villous. Seeds gray to brown; approximately 1.3 mm long; rugose.

Ploidy:

Habitat: Coastal vegetation and dry shrubland; apparently restricted to calcareous substrates.

Elevation Range: 5–200 m.