Japan Flora: Glabrous reddish annual 3-10 cm. high, usually creeping and branching at base, erect in upper part, rather soft; leaves 3- to 4(-5)-verticillate, narrowly lanceolate to broadly linear, 6-10 mm. long, L5-2 mm. wide, truncate and often bimucronate, narrowed to a sessile base; flowers solitary in axils, sessile, about 0.8 mm. long, redcUsh, usually 5-merous, the bracteoles thinly membranous, linear, as long as the calyx; calyx semiglobose in fruit, the lobes deltoid; stamens 2 or 3; capsules globose, about twice as long as the calyx; style ab¬sent. Aug.-Oct. Paddy fields and wet places in lowlands;

Honshu, Shikoku, Kyushu; common. The Tropics and warm-temperate regions of the world.