L., Sp. Pl. 982. 1753 Monoecious herb, to 80 cm tall; branchlets deciduous, 5-10 cm long; stems and petioles glabrous. Leaves alternate, simple; stipules lanceolate, to 1.5 mm long, paired, the pairs unequal; petioles 1 mm or less long; blades linear to oblong-obovate, obtuse to mucronate at apex, rounded at base, 8-25 mm long, 2-6 (9) mm wide, glabrous but with hispidulous margins below, entire. Flowers minute, axillary, greenish-white, apetalous; staminate flowers 5-7, in cymules in upper axils of branchlets; calyx lobes 6, ca 0.5 mm long; stamens 3; filaments connate their entire length; pistillate flowers solitary in lower branchlet axils; pedicels ca 0.5 mm long; calyx lobes 6, less than 1 mm long; ovary papillate; styles 3, connate into a column, bifid at apex. Capsules globular, ca 2 mm diam, green, often reddish-tinged, nearly sessile, dehiscing into 3 cocci, leaving a persistent columella; seeds 1 per coccus, ca 1 mm long, transversely ribbed, often pitted on sides. Croat 16528. Native to tropical Asia; introduced throughout tropical America. In Panama, known from tropical moist forest in the Canal Zone, Bocas del Toro, Colón, San Blas, Chiriqui, and Panama, from premontane moist forest in the Canal Zone, from premontane wet forest in Coclé, and Panama, and from tropical wet forest in Colón, and Coclé.
