Plants perennial (possibly annual in some parts of its range). Stems prostrate or ascending, much-branched, 1.5-7 dm, densely puberulent. Leaves nonaromatic; petiole absent or indistinguishable from blade; blade oblong to elliptic, 0.6-4.5 × 0.1-1(-2) cm, base narrowly cuneate, margins deeply and irregularly pinnatifid with narrow, linear lobes, sometimes only dentate, apex acute to obtuse, glandular-pubescent abaxially. Inflorescences: lateral glomerules 1.8-3.5 mm diam.; bracts similar to cauline leaves. Flowers: perianth segments (4-)5, connate for most of their length, urceolate, tube with distinct reticulate veins, distinct portion 0.1-0.5 mm, margins dentate, apex rounded to broadly acute, accrescent and coriaceous with age, enclosing fruit; stamens 5; stigmas (2-)3(-5). Achenes obovoid; pericarp loosely adherent, membranaceous, with many yellow glandular hairs near apex, otherwise smooth. Seeds vertical, suborbicular to ovoid, 0.8-1.3 × 0.8-1 mm; seed coat smooth.

Fruiting mid summer-late fall. Waste ground, sandy shores and ballast dumps near coast; 0-700 m; introduced; Calif., Fla., Ga., Mass., N.J., N.Y., Oreg., Pa., S.C., Va.; South America; introduced widely throughout the tropical and warm-temperate regions of world.

Prostrate or spreading, odoriferous perennial; stems to 6 dm, villous- puberulent; lvs numerous, obscurely puberulent, finely resinous-glandular beneath, subsessile, 1-4 cm, narrowly oblong, deeply and irregularly pinnatilobate, the upper much reduced; fls in small axillary glomerules; cal urceolate, shallowly 5-lobed, at maturity 1.5-2.5 mm, obovoid, raised-reticulate-veiny, and loosely but completely enclosing the fr; stamens 5; styles 2-5, basally connate; pericarp thin, free, seed erect, obovate, thick-lenticular, smooth, 1 mm wide; 2n=32. Native of S. Amer., intr. in waste places in our range, esp. southward. (Roubieva m.)

Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.

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