Acalypha indica Linn.

Chinese name: 熱帶鐵莧菜 (山朴草) 

Common name:  Indian Acalypha　

Description:

Habit: Herbs, annual, erect, 0.5 - 1 m tall; young branches appressed-pubescent

Leaves: Simple, alternate, membranous, rhomboid-ovate or subovate, 2 - 3.5 cm long, 1.5 - 2.5 cm wide, serrulate along upper margins, pubescent along nerves on both surfaces; petioles 1.5 - 3.5 cm long, pubescent; stipules narrowly triangular, ca. 1 mm long

Flowers: Monoecious, androgynous; inflorescences solitary, 2 - 7 cm long, bearing an abnormal flower at apex, peduncles and axis of inflorescences pubescent; male bracts ovate-triangular or broad-triangular, 0.5 mm long; bract-axils with 5 - 7 male flowers; pedicels ca. 0.5 mm long; calyx-lobes 4, long-ovate, 0.4 mm long; stamens 8; female bracts 3 - 7, rounded-cordate, ca. 5 mm long, shallowly dentate along upper margins, glabrous or very sparsely hairy, with prominently palmate veins; bract-axils with 1 - 2 female flowers; sepals 3, narrowly triangular, ca. 0.5 mm long, sparsely ciliate; ovary hairy, styles 3, 2.5 - 3 mm long; stigma divided into 5 filiform segments; abnormal female flower sepals 4, ca. 0.5 mm long, ovary subcordate, 1-celled; style 1 

Fruits: Capsules ca. 2 mm across, pubescent

Seeds: ovate, ca. 1.5 mm long.

Flowering: From March to October

Fruiting: From March to October

Distribution: Occasional in disturbed lowland grassland;  also in southern China, Taiwan, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Tropical Africa and C. America

Uses: -