Home
Decumbent, evil-smelling, branching herb up to ± 6 dm. diam., with deeply descending main root. Branches stiff, slender, glabrate, pale, 20-30 cm. or more long. Lvs on slender petioles, 2-5 mm. long; lamina 4-10-(20) × 4-10-(15) cm., rhomboid to ovate-rhomboid, acute, cuneately narrowed to base, entire or with a pair of lateral teeth. Fls in dense axillary clusters, forming a spikelike infl. Per. segs 4-5, oblong, obtuse, not hiding fr.; stamens us. 4. Utricle horizontal, depressed, minutely punctulate, ± 1 mm. diam.
Prostrate to ascending fetid annual. Leaves trullate, entire or with a pair of lateral teeth, sparsely to moderately mealy; lamina thin, 5–10 mm long. Inflorescence of short dense axillary thyrses. Flowers mostly bisexual. Tepals 5, rarely 4, thin, broadly ovate with a short claw, cucullate and fleshy at apex, mealy outside. Stamen 1, rarely 2; disc absent. Pericarp membranous, prominently papillose, somewhat adherent to seed. Seed horizontal, discoid with rounded margin, c. 1.2 mm diam.; testa punctate, black.
