Monoecious or sometimes dioecious completely glabrous erect annual herb up to 40 cm. tall, sometimes becoming woody at the base and then reaching 2 m. in height, or else a procumbent perennial.. Orthotropic shoots ± angular, reddish or greenish. Plagiotropic shoots up to 8 cm. long, slender, ± angular.. Cataphylls narrowly lanceolate, 1 mm. long, yellowish brown, strongly reflexed. Cataphyllary stipules obliquely triangular-lanceolate, 1.5 mm. long, acute, entire, yellowish brown.. Leaves of the plagiotropic shoots distichous; petioles 0.5–0.75 mm. long; blades elliptic-obovate to elliptic-oblong, (1.5–)6–10(–14) mm. long, (1–)3–4.5(–7) mm. wide, rounded or obtuse, rounded-cuneate, thinly chartaceous, lateral nerves 3–4 pairs, not visible above, scarcely distinct beneath, mid-green above, paler beneath with reddish margins.. Stipules linear-lanceolate, 1 mm. long, pinkish with cream margins.. Male flowers usually geminate in the axils of the lower half of the flowering shoots, ♀ solitary in those of the upper half.. Male flowers: pedicels 0.5 mm. long; sepals 5(–6), ovate-suborbicular, strongly concave, the 3 outer 0.75 mm. long and broad, the (2–)3 inner much smaller, rounded, white with a broad median creamy yellowish band; disc glands 5(–6), free, rounded, fleshy, ± smooth; stamens 3, filaments connate into a very short column, anthers ± free, laterally held, quadrilobate, 0.3 mm. across, horizontally dehiscent.. Female flowers: pedicels 1 mm. long, extending to 2 mm. in fruit, slightly dilated apically; sepals 5(–6), elliptic-obovate, 1.5–2 mm. long, 1 mm. broad, accrescent to 3 mm. long and 1.5 mm. broad, and becoming hardened, rounded, greenish brown with narrow whitish margins; disc annular, ± flat or slightly undulate, slightly fleshy; ovary hexalobate-subglobose, 1 mm. diameter, smooth; styles suberect to divaricate, 0.5 mm. long, bifid, stigmas recurved at the tips.. Fruit subglobose, shallowly trilobate, 2 mm. long, 3 mm. diameter, enclosed by the persistent sepals, smooth, purplish tinged towards the apex.. Seeds triquetrous, 1.5 mm. long, 1.2 mm. wide, with ± 20 shallow longitudinal ridges on the dorsal facet and ± 15 shallow concentric ridges on each ventral facet, and with innumerable faintly refringent transverse striae between the ridges, yellowish brown.
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Very like Phyllanthus arvensis, but with foliage leaf blades elliptic-oblong to oblanceolate-oblong and often parallel-sided; lateral nerves much less conspicuous and more symmetrically arranged; and the male disk glands ± smooth.
A herb. It grows each year from seed. It grows 20-30 cm tall. The leaflets are oblong. Male and female flowers are separate. The female flowers are nearer the top of the branches.
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