Herbs, annual; herbage glabrous or sparsely red stipitate-glandular. Flowering stems trailing or suberect, leafy, 4-40 cm. Leaves cauline; stipules absent; petiole glabrous; blade ovate to lanceolate, unlobed, base cuneate or attenuate to rounded, margins 3-toothed apically or not, ultimate margins entire, (without lime-secreting hydathodes), apex acute; venation palmate or pinnate. Inflorescences poorly defined, usually paniculiform or racemiform thyrses, sometimes solitary flowers, 2-4-flowered, bracteate. Flowers: hypanthium adnate to proximal 1/3 of ovary, free from ovary 0 mm, adnate portion increasing along with attached ovary at maturity to constitute 2/3-4/5 of fruit, green, (0.8-2 mm); sepals 5, green; petals 5, white; nectary disc present; stamens 10, (distinct); filaments flattened, slightly widened at base; ovary semi-inferior, 2-locular, carpels connate in proximal 1/3 or less; placentation axile, appearing marginal above point of connation of ovaries; styles 2; stigmas 2. Capsules folliclelike, 2-beaked. Seeds brown, oblong, spiny in longitudinal rows. x = 8.
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