| General Information |
| Distribution | Native from Mexico to Argentina, the West Indies, and the Paleotropics.In the Hawaiian Islands,
naturalized on
Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lana`i, Maui, Hawai`i.
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Habit
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Annual herb; stems prostrate, 10–30 cm, crisped pubescent adaxially, glabrous abaxially.
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Leaves
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Leaves distichous, slightly unequal; blade ovate to oblong, 3–9 mm long, 1.5–5 mm wide, glabrous or with a few scattered hairs, margin coarsely serrate, apex rounded or obtuse, base obtuse, rounded, or subcordate; petiole 0.5–1 mm long; stipules distinct, 0.5–1 mm long, lacerate.
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Flowers
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Cyathia 1 to few at nodes of short, congested, leafy, lateral shoots; involucre 0.6–1 mm high, pubescent to glabrate, glands 4, red, elliptic to suborbicular, appendages white to rose, about twice as long as the gland, sometimes absent. Staminate flowers 3–5 per cyathium.
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Fruit
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Fruit ovoid-deltoid, 3-angled, 1–1.5 mm long, uniformly strigose, not fully exserted, but splitting the cyathium at maturity.
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Seeds
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Seeds dull, pinkish, strongly quadrangular, 0.8–1 mm long, faces with 3–4 transverse ridges.
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Chromosomes
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2n = 18, 19.
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Contributor
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Nancy Khan
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