Acalypha australis (Asian copperleaf, "Enokigusa")

Japanese name: エノキグサ （榎草）
Scientific name: Acalypha australis

[Overview]
An annual up to about 75 cm tall, found along roadsides, in fields and on riverbank embankments.
The stem is erect and branched.
Leaves are simple and alternate, ovate to lanceolate, 2.5–9.1 cm long and 1.3–4.6 cm wide, with serrated margins.
Three veins are conspicuous on the leaf.
The petiole is 0.8–5.8 cm.
There are lanceolate stipules 1.5 mm long.
Spike-like inflorescences emerge from the leaf axils and stem tips, each on a stalk 0.2–8 cm long.
There are male and female flowers, and neither has petals.
The male flowers are small and borne in large clusters on the upper part of the inflorescence.
The male flowers have pedicels 1.3–0.7 mm long and grow several at a time in ovate bracts 0.3–0.7 cm long.
The female flowers are borne on the lower part of the inflorescence, have no pedicels, and grow 1–3 per bract.
The bracts of the female flowers are kidney-shaped to heart-shaped, 0.4–2.5 cm long and 0.8–1.7 cm wide, with toothed margins.
The fruit is a broadly ovate capsule with wart-like protrusions.

[Notes]
The Japanese name comes from the leaves resembling those of the enoki.

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