Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Herbs perennial, 30–100 cm tall.

Stems: Stems erect, terete (cylindrical), much branched, lower branches subopposite, yellow–white, slightly ribbed, not striate, furfuraceous.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Alternate or lower ones opposite. Blades rhombic–ovate to ovate–oblong, usually 2–3 × 1–2 cm, flattened. Apex obtuse or acute, mucronulate. Base cuneate to broadly so, decurrent. Upper surfaces gray–green furfuraceous; lower surfaces gray–white furfuraceous. Margins usually 3-lobed, proximal–middle lateral lobes entire, obtuse, middle lobes repand or entire. Petiolate. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers in inflorescences axillary glomerules, forming small, reduced panicles on upper branches. Flowers unisexual. Calyx of staminate flowers 5-parted. Corolla (petals) absent. Stamens in staminate flowers 5. Fruiting bracts connate only at base, rhombic–ovate to triangular–ovate, without appendages, basal central part mostly thickened and corky; pedicel 1–2 mm. Ovary superior; style very short; stigmas 2.

Fruit: Utricles enclosed by fruiting bracts; compressed globose or lenticular; pericarp light yellow; membranous; adnate to seed. Seeds 1 per fruit; red–brown; ca. 2 mm in diam.; embryo annular; perisperm white; solid.

Ploidy:

Habitat: Sandy and coral–rocky seashores; near sea level.

Elevation Range: