Japanese name: アゼトウガラシ（畦唐辛子、畔唐辛子） Scientific name:Lindernia micrantha
[Overview]
An annual found in wet places such as rice paddies, paddy ridges and marshes.
The stem branches at the base and stands up, reaching 10–20 cm in height.
The stem is hairless and square in cross section.
The leaves are simple and opposite, lanceolate to narrowly ovate, 1–3 cm long, and gradually narrow at the base into a stalk-like form.
The leaves are hairless on both sides and have 2–4 low teeth on the margin.
The flowers are solitary in the upper leaf axils, about 0.7 cm long, very pale reddish purple, tubular, and lip-shaped at the tip.
The upper lip is shallowly 2-lobed, and the lower lip is 3-lobed with a yellow marking on the central lobe.
The calyx is deeply 5-lobed.
The fruit is a capsule 1 cm long, linear-narrowly ovate to cylindrical with a pointed tip, and is markedly longer than the calyx.
[Notes]
Commonly seen on the ridges of rice fields, the Japanese name compares the shape of the fruit to Togarashi.
