Tragia meyeriana Müll.Arg.

A herb with woody base; stems erect or ascending, simple or branched, never twining, 8-16 in. high, pubescent and copiously armed with stinging bristles; leaves long-petioled, membranous, triangular-ovate, acute, base rather deeply and usually widely cordate, margin closely and strongly toothed, 1 1/2-2 1/4 in. long, 1 1/4-2 in. wide, above rather sparingly beset with stinging bristles, more densely bristly (especially on the nerves) beneath, very rarely almost glabrous; petiole rather densely bristly, 3/4-1 in. long; stipules spreading, lanceolate or ovate-lanceolate, bristly, 2-2 1/2 lin. long; racemes terminal or leaf-opposed and subterminal, with many male flowers solitary to their bracts above and 1-3 basal female flowers; peduncle and rhachis densely setose and bristly; male bracts ovate-lanceolate, entire, setose and bristly, 2 lin. long; female bracts ovate-lanceolate, with margin usually minutely toothed, bristly, 3 lin. long; male calyx 3-partite, very large for the genus; lobes ovate, acute, nearly glabrous; stamens 3, rarely 4-5; filaments longer than the anthers, incurved above; anthers subconnivent; female calyx 3-partite, with occasionally a fourth smaller lobe added; lobes wide-oblong or suborbicular, palmately 6-8-lobulate on each side, much shorter than the width of the accrescent strongly indurated rhachis, in fruit 2/5 in. long; ovary puberulous and setose; styles 3, connate below in a short column, free above; capsule 3-coccous, 1/3 in. across; cocci sparingly bristly, subglobose; seeds globose.