Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Plants annual, pubescent in distal parts or becoming glabrescent at maturity.

Stems: Stems erect to ascending or decumbent, branched at or distal to base, 0.1–0.9 m.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Alternate. Blades lanceolate to nearly linear or rhombic–ovate to elliptic–ovate, (1.5–)2–4(–5) × 1–3 cm. Apex subacute to obtuse or emarginate, mucronulate. Base cuneate to broadly cuneate. Upper surfaces glabrous; lower surfaces glabrous or with a few short glandular hairs on the veins. Margins entire, plane, rarely indistinctly undulate. Petioles variable in length. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers in axillary glomerules, green. bracts lanceolate, subspinescent, 1.5–2 mm, shorter or slightly longer than tepals. Flowers unisexual; plants monoecious. Calyx of 3 sepals, erect, elliptic to lanceolate-elliptic, equal or subequal, 1.5–2 mm, apex short-acuminate. Corolla (petals) absent. Stamens 3. Ovary superior; stigmas (2–)3.

Fruit: Utricles subglobose to broadly elliptic; 2–2.5 mm; slightly rugose; dehiscence regularly circumscissile; rarely irregularly dehiscent. Seeds 1 per fruit; black; lenticular; 1–1.3(–1.6) mm diam.; smooth or indistinctly punctate.

Ploidy: 2n = 32

Habitat:

Elevation Range: