Japanese name: コミカンソウ（小蜜柑草） Scientific name:Phyllanthus lepidocarpus
[Overview]
An annual commonly seen along roadsides and on vacant lots, sometimes growing taller than 60 cm.
The stem is erect and much branched.
The branches extend horizontally to 2–9.5 cm long and are hairy.
Each branch bears 10–39 alternate leaves, which at first glance look like pinnately compound leaves.
The leaves are simple, elliptic, 0.7–1.8 cm long and 0.3–0.7 cm wide, hairless on both surfaces, and entire.
The petiole is 0.1–0.2 mm long.
In Honshu it flowers from summer to autumn, but in Okinawa it flowers all year round.
There are male and female flowers, borne in leaf axils in small cymes of several flowers each.
Neither the male nor the female flowers have petals.
The fruit is an oblate capsule 2 mm in diameter, with wart-like projections on the surface.
The seeds are three-ridged.
