| General Information |
| Distribution | Native to the Neotropics, but now widely naturalized in many parts of the world.In the Hawaiian Islands,
naturalized on
Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lana`i, Maui, Hawai`i.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Habit
|
Perennial herbs; stems prostrate, rarely ascending, sometimes rooting at the nodes, 1-5 dm long, pilose, the hairs multicellular.
|
Leaves
|
Leaves ovate to obovate, 0.5-4.5 cm long, 0.3-2 cm wide, glabrous to sparsely appressed pilose, petioles 2-10 mm long.
|
Flowers
|
Flowers in sessile, sparsely pubescent spikes, bract ca. 4 mm long, tipped with a spine 2-3 mm long, bracteoles 3-4 mm long, acute; sepals unequal, the 2 abaxial ones 4-5 mm long, spine tipped, the spine usually more than 2 mm long, other sepals not spine tipped; stamens 5, all fertile.
|
Fruit
|
Utricles 1.2-1.5 mm long, enclosed by the sepals.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Chromosomes
|
2n = 64.
|
|
|
|
|
