光斤草

A delicate annual 5-10 cm tall; stems often branched at base, leafy throughout. Leaves sessile, lanceolate to broadly linear, 3-8 mm long, 1-2 mm wide, apex acute to acuminate, mucronate, inconspicuously 1-costate, glabrous. Flowers white; calyx 1.5 mm long, 4-lobed, lobes acute; corolla ca. 2.5 mm across, throat hairy; style ca. 2.5 mm long; pedicels 7-20 mm long. Capsules globose, ca. 2.5 mm in diam., bifid; seeds reticulate.

KAOHSIUNG: Kaohsiung, Henry 1902. PINGTUNG: Bankinsing, Henry s. n.

Widely distributed in India, southern Asia, Malaysia and Australia. Taiwan, rare, in open places in lowlands.

This plant has long been referred to M. alsinoides R. Br. But, as noted by Leenhouts, it can be distinguished by glabrous, ribbed to winged stems and coarsely reticulate seeds.