A. RADCLIFFE-SMITH

A prostrate annual herb with the stems flattened and puberulous or pubescent above, terete and glabrous beneath, extending to 25 cm. Petioles 0.5-1 mm long. Leaf-blades ovate-oblong, 3-8 x 1-5 mm, subacute, obtuse or rounded at the apex, obliquely rounded at the base, minutely serrulate in the upper half, otherwise ± entire, palminerved. Stipules linear-lanceolate, 1 mm long, remotely fimbriate, upper and lower both paired. Cyathia solitary in the leaf-mils on microphyllous lateral shoots, pedunculate.Glands suborbicular, purplish, minutely or scarcely appendiculate. Fruits trigonous, 1 x 1 mm, smooth, adpressed-pubescent with multicellular hairs, ochreous, ripening on not or scarcely-extending pedicels thus often causing the cyathia to split down the side. Seeds ovoid-cylindric, quadrangular, shallowly transversely furrowed and ridged, 0.7 x 0.4 mm, pinkish-grey.

Holotype: India, ? spm. no. 630/10 in Fib . Linn. (LINN).

Distribution: Widespread in Tropical Asia and America, and introduced into E. Tropical Africa.