Shrub usually 1 m. or less high, sometimes to 2 m. in height, the branchlets terete, smooth, glabrous except one of two longitudinally short-puberulous rows. Leaves petiolate, the petiole 0.5-2.8 cm. long, short-puberulous above, glabrous beneath, the stipules narrowly lanceolate, acuminate, ca. 2.5 mm. long, glabrous; blade ovate to more or less elliptic, rounded and somewhat cordate at the base, acute at the apex, 2-7 cm. long and 0.9-3.5 cm. wide, membranous, discolored, the margins crenate-serrate, glabrous or nearly so on both sides, usually 3-palmi-nerved. Flowers oppositifolious or axillary, solitary, geminate or 3-nate, short-pedicellate, the pedicel terete, enlarged at the apex, 4-8 mm. long, inconspicuous-puberulous; sepals 5, narrowly oblong-lanceolate, lortg-acuminate, 7-8 mm. long and 1-1.5 mm. wide, fleshy, glabrous; petals 5, obovate, rounded, 5-6 mm. long and 3 mm. wide, yellow, glabrous; stamens numerous, free, the filaments ca. 4-5 mm. long, the anthers oblong, ca. 0.5 mm. long; ovary narrowly oblong, ca. 3 mm. long and 0.75 mm. in diam., very shortly puberulous, 2-celled; style filiform, ca. 2.5 mm. long, glabrous; stigma subbilobate, densely papillate. Capsule erect, linear, compressed contrary to the partition, acute and with 4 minute teeth at the apex, 3.8-6 cm. long and 2-2.5 mm. in diam., 2-celled, the valves coriaceous-chartaceous, inconspicuously puberulous; seeds numerous, polygonal, ca. 1 mm. long.
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Plants herbs, annual. Stems erect, 3–25 dm, short-pilose in 1(–2) lines, hairs erect, dense, sharp-pointed. Leaves: petiole 5–10 mm; blade elliptic-ovate, 0.5–2.5(–4) cm, base rounded-truncate, margins serrate, proximal teeth not prolonged, apex acute, surfaces glabrous, adaxial surface minutely pustulate-roughened. Inflorescences usually solitary flowers, sometimes fasciculate or cymose, 2–3-flowered. Pedicels 4–7 mm. Flowers: sepals narrowly oblong-lanceolate, 4–5 mm, not awned, glabrous; petals 4–6 mm; stamens 50–70. Capsules cylindric, flattened, not wing-angled, subtruncate distally, 2-valved, each valve with 2 awns 1.5–3 mm, 20–30(–60) × 2–3 mm, minutely hirtellous to hispidulous. 2n = 28.
Moist or dry thickets, often in waste ground, at elevations of 1,000 metres or lower. A weed of roadsides, stony waste places, rough pastures and thickets, mostly on limestone, at elevations up to 750 metres in Jamaica.
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A tropical plant. In Colombia it grows up to 740 m above sea level.
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