Appearance
This is an annual herb growing from a slender taproot. It produces a branched, hairy stem up to 40 or 45 centimeters tall. The hairy leaves are up to 2 or 3 centimeters long and are gland-tipped. The inflorescence bears as few as 3 or as many as 50 small flowers clustered with short cymes. The flower has five hairy green sepals which are occasionally red-tipped, and five white two-lobed petals which are a few millimeters long and generally shorter than the sepals. Some flowers lack petals. The fruit is a capsule less than a centimeter long which is tipped with ten tiny teeth.
Habitat
Frequent in waste places, walls, banks and arable land.
Uses
The leaves and shoots were used as a wild food in ancient China. In Nepal, the juice of this plant was applied to the forehead to relieve headaches. The juice could also be dropped into the nostrils to treat nosebleeds.References:
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