Phyllanthus niruri L.

Annual herb 1-5 dm high, glabrous; monoecious; main stem smooth, terete, ca 1-2.5 mm thick, scale leaves scarious, becoming brownish, 1.5-3 mm long, narrow and acuminate. Deciduous branchlets mostly 5-10 cm long, 0.3-0.5 mm thick, sub-terete, smooth, with ca 15-30 leaves. Leaves thin; petioles 0.4-0.7 mm long; stipules linear-lanceolate, unequal, the longer of each pair 2-2.7 mm long; blades mostly ovate or elliptic, ca 7-17 mm long, 3-9 mm broad, acute or subacute at the tip, conspicuously oblique at the base, often conspicuously paler beneath. Cymules unisexual, the proximal 2-12 nodes of branchlets barren or with cymules of 3-7 staminate flowers, the distal nodes with solitary pistillate flowers. Staminate flowers with pedicels 1.2-1.8 mm long; calyx-lobes 5 (rarely 6), obovate or obcuneate, mostly 1.2-1.5 mm long; disc-segments 5, more or less papillate; stamens 3, the filaments ca 0.6-1 mm long, free or united to 3/4 their length in a column, the anthers dehiscing obliquely; pollen grains 4-colporate. Pistillate flowers with pedicels usually becoming 2.5-4.5 mm long; calyx-lobes 5, elliptic or obovate, obtuse or rounded at the tip, 1.5-2.7 mm long; disc patelliform, somewhat angled and thickened; ovary smooth, the styles free, ascending, bifid, 0.5-0.6 mm long, the branches capitate. Capsules smooth, stramineous, ca 3 mm in diam; seeds dark brown or fuscous, 1.4-1.8 mm long, verruculose.

It is a tropical plant. It grows in coastal areas. In Argentina it grows from sea level to 1,000 m above sea level.

Can be grown by seedlings.