A. RADCLIFFE-SMITH

A prostrate annual herb with the stems flattened and puberulous or pubescent above, terete and glabrous beneath, extending to 30 cm, though usually not exceeding 20 cm in length. Petioles 0.5-1 mm long. Leaf-blades obovate-surborbicular, 3-8 x 1-5 mm, obtuse or rounded at the apex, obliquely rounded at the base, minutely serrulate in the upper half, otherwise ± entire, palminerved, reticulate, green. Stipules triangular, laciniate, the upper paired, narrow, 0.5 mm long, the lower fused, broader, 1 mm long. Cyathia solitary in the leaf-axils on microphyllous lateral shoots, long-pedunculate. Glands transversely ovate, purplish with minute pinkish appendages. Fruits sharply trigonous, keels carinate, 1.2 x 1.5 mm, smooth, glabrous on the sides, pilose with white multicellular hairs on the keels, pale green or stramineous, the keels often purplish. Seeds ovoid-quadrangular, sharply transversely furrowed and ridged, 0.8 x 0.5 mm, pale grey.

Fl. & Fr. Per.: More or less continuously throughout the year.

Holotype: Cult. Kew, 1758, Miller s.n., from seed collected in the West Indies (BM).

Distribution: Native to tropical and subtropical America, introduced into many parts of the Old World. On sandy loam and calcareous substrata, in lawns, gardens and by roadsides; 1700'/518 m. - 5900'/1800 m.