| General Information |
| Distribution | Native to tropical regions of eastern South America from Santa Catarina, Brazil, north to the Lesser Antilles.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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Erect, suffrutescent herbs or subshrubs up to 0.5 m tall; young branches subquadrate, strigose.
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Leaves
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Leaves ovate to oblong-ovate or elliptic, 1.4-4.5 cm long, 0.6-1.6 cm wide, 3-nerved, both surfaces sparsely to moderately strigose, margins entire or obscurely serrulate, apex acute, base obtuse to rounded, petioles 1-5 mm long.
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Flowers
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Flowers usually 3-5(-10) in bracteate, terminal glomerules, bracts and bracteoles ovate to lanceolate, 3.5-6 mm long, 1-2.5 mm wide at base, persistent, ciliate; hypanthium covered with simple and stalked-stellate or branched hairs; calyx lobes triangular or oblong-ovate, 4-7.5 mm long, ca. 2 mm wide at base, ciliolate; petals obovate, ± obliquely truncate, 10-15 mm long, 10-14 mm wide; larger anthers pink, 3-4 mm long, connective prolonged 0.25-0.5 mm, with a 2-lobed appendage ca. 0.5 mm long, smaller anthers yellow, 2.5-3.5 mm long, with connective and appendage somewhat shorter but otherwise as in larger anthers. Fruiting hypanthium 4-6 mm long, 2-5 mm wide.
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Seeds
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Seeds ca. 0.5 mm long.
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Chromosomes
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2n = 36
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