Distribution
Ukraine (introduced)

Plants annual, glabrous. Stems prostrate or ascending (very rarely suberect), much-branched (usually from base), (0.1-)0.2-0.6(-1) m. Leaves: petiole ± 1/2 as long as blade; blade obovate, elliptic, or spatulate, 1-2(-4) × 0.5-1(-1.5) cm, base cuneate and tapering, margins usually entire, plane, rarely slightly undulate, apex obtuse, rounded, mucronulate. Inflorescences axillary glomerules, green. Bracts of pistillate flowers narrow, thin, 1.5-5 mm, ± equaling or slightly exceeding tepals. Pistillate flowers: tepals (3-)4-5, narrowly ovate to broadly linear, unequal or subequal, 1.5-3 mm, thin, apex acute or acuminate; style branches spreading; stigmas 3. Staminate flowers intermixed with pistillate; tepals 3(-4); stamens 3. Utricles broadly ovoid, 1.7-2.5 mm, equaling tepals, mostly smooth (slightly verrucose or rugose in dry plants), dehiscence regularly circumscissile. Seeds black, lenticular to broadly plumply lenticular, 1.3-1.6 mm diam., rather dull.
Flowering summer-fall. Disturbed habitats: roadsides, riverbanks, railroads, fields, waste places, sandy flats; 0-2200 m.