| General Information |
| Distribution | Indigenous to northern South America, Galápagos Islands, and Hawaiian IslandsIn the Hawaiian Islands,
indigenous to
Ni`ihau, Kaua`i, O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lana`i, Maui, Hawai`i.
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Habit
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Slender, low, short-lived perennial herbs; stems somewhat fleshy, weakly ascending or decumbent, 5-20(-30) cm long.
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Leaves
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Leaves well-spaced or crowded toward tips of stems, upper surface green, lower surface pale and somewhat tinged red, broadly ovate to suborbicular, sometimes rhombic-cuneate, 4-45 mm long, (2-)6-15(-23) mm wide, those of a pair subequal, but 1 petiole often shorter, 3-nerved, both surfaces with linear to elliptic cystoliths, margins crenate in upper 1/2, sometimes margins of few lower leaf pairs entire, petioles 3-25 mm long, usually equalling or longer than the blade, stipules 1-1.5 mm long.
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Flowers
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Flowers unisexual (and the plants monoecious), in dense, axillary, sessile fascicles; staminate flowers 0.4-0.5 mm long, calyx lobes oblong, hooded, glabrous, each with a minute dorsal, apiculate appendage; pistillate flowers more numerous than staminate, on pedicels 1-1.5(-2) mm long, calyx tinged red, the outer calyx lobe largest, 0.6-0.8 mm long, the others 0.4-0.6 mm long.
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Fruit
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Achenes lenticular-ovoid, 0.6-0.8 mm long, partly enclosed by the largest calyx lobe.
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