Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Monoecious, erect annual herbs 0.1–0.8 m tall.

Stems: Stems often branching with age, branching phyllanthoid, the branches 4–10(–12) cm long with watery sap, usually with 15–35 leaves.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Alternate. Blades narrowly elliptic, (6–)8–21 mm long, 2.5–5 mm wide. Margins entire. Petioles 0.3–1 mm long. Stipules lanceolate, 0.9–1.2 mm long.

Flowers: Staminate flowers 3–4 in racemose cymes arising in the first 2–4 nodes of the branches, pedicels less than 0.5 mm long; pistillate flowers solitary in the nodes above staminate flowers, pedicels becoming 1.1– 1.6 mm long. Flowers unisexual. Calyx of staminate flowers 6-lobed, 0.5–0.6 mm long. Calyx of pistillate flower with lobes 6, (1–)1.2–1.5 mm long, margins whitish and scarious. Corolla (petals) absent. Stamens in staminate flowers 3; filaments connate. Ovary superior; styles distinct, bifid.

Fruit: Capsules depressed–globose; ca. 2–2.2 mm in diameter; the surface smooth; explosively dehiscent. Seeds pale yellowish brown; angled; ca. 1–1.1 mm long; with 6– 7 longitudinal ribs and fine transverse striations on back.

Ploidy: 2n = 14; 24; 26; 28

Habitat: Low elevation; disturbed areas such as yards and other urban sites; also in open areas such as lava fields.

Elevation Range: