| General Information |
| Distribution | Native to the Caribbean.In the Hawaiian Islands,
naturalized on
Kure, Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lana`i, Maui, Kaho`olawe, Hawai`i.
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Habit
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Prostrate to ascending perennial herbs, leafy in lower 1/2, diffusely paniculate in upper 1/2 ; stems glandular puberulent and sparsely pilose with long multicellular hairs, branching opposite near base, upward usually becoming alternate by suppression of 1 branch of a pair, angle of branching wide.
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Leaves
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Leaves broadly ovate to suborbicular, very variable in size, up to 2.5 cm long, 3-5 pairs of nerves, converging toward the base, lower pairs close together or even palmate, upper surface green, obscurely glandular, lower surface paler, glabrous except with some long hairs on lower part of midrib and veins, surface marked with white raphide bundles, margins conspicuously long-ciliate, apex obtuse to subacute, base obtuse to truncate or subcordate, petioles 0.5-1(-2) cm long, long-ciliate.
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Flowers
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Flowers subsessile or very short-pedicellate, in few-flowered glomerules, these arranged in large, very open panicles, branching many times (up to 10) at wide angles, sparsely glandular, distal branches filiform, upper articulations of panicles with small pilose bracts, those subtending glomerules hyaline, lanceolate, acuminate; perianth strongly constricted near middle, limb magenta or crimson to dark red, campanulate, ca. 2.5 mm long, glabrous; stamens 2.
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Fruit
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Anthocarps narrowly obconical-clavate, 3-4 mm long, apex abruptly contracted to an obtuse point, ribs prominently stipitate glandular, occasionally with a few glands in the wide furrows, the furrows also with many longitudinally arranged raphide bundles.
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Chromosomes
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2n = 24, 54*
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