Acalypha arvensis Poepp.

Herb ca 2-5 dm high; stems moderately to densely pubescent with ? incurved, appressed hairs, gland-tipped hairs absent. Leaves membranaceous; petioles densely pubescent, mostly 1-2.5 cm long; stipules lanceolate, acuminate, pubescent, ca 1.5-2.5 mm long; blades ovate, mostly 3-6 cm long, 1.5-3 cm broad, strigose-hirsute above, glabrate beneath except on the veins, 5-veined at base, the base cuneate, the margins crenate-serrate (12-18 teeth on a side), the apex acute. Spikes all axillary; 9 spikes with peduncles 6-12 mm long, ellipsoidal to short-cylindric, ca (1-) 1.5-2 cm long, 1-1.5 cm broad, usually with a terminal projection 4-7 mm long bearing 5-10 nodes of male flowers (and occasionally a terminating ebracteate female flower); male spikes densely pubescent, uninterrupted, ca 5-20 mm long, with peduncles 3-25 mm long. Pistillate flowers solitary, sessile; bracts hispid with sharp hairs ca 0.5-1.5 mm long and slender gland-tipped hairs (ca 0.5-1 mm long), 4-8 mm long, with 5 lobes (plus occasionally 1 or 2 smaller extra lobes), the longer central lobes mostly (1.5-)2.5-5 mm long, deltoid with a green subulate tip 0.8-3 mm long; ovary apically 3-carinate, hispidulous, not glandular, the styles 1.7-4 mm long, with 3-5 distal branches. Capsules sharply carinate, hispid to hispidulous; seeds ellipsoidal, smooth (minutely foveolate), grayish, 1.2-1.3 mm long, the caruncle 0.4-0.6 mm long.

Moist or wet thickets, fields, or banks, often a weed in cultivated or waste ground, frequent on sandbars along streams; at elevations up to 1,500 metres.

Can be grown by seedlings.