English: Asthma weed.
Synonym: Chamaesyce hirta
Region: very common in the tropics and subtropics, America, South America, southern USA, Asia, Japan, Nepal,
Habitat:cultivated fields, gardens; roadsides, waste places; lowland; moist open places; elevations up to 1800 metres; not frost tolerant; prefers well-drained, moderately rich loam in an open sunny position.
Content: latex which is toxic on ingestion and highly irritant externally; terpenoids; diterpene esters of the phorbol and ingenol type; tannins; acids, ellagic acid, gallic acid, tannic acid, maleic acid, tartaric acid; flavonoids; hydrocarbon hentriacontane, myricyl alcohol; inositol, taraxerol, friedelin, β-sitosterol, ellagic acid, kaempferol, quercitol, quercitrin; ethyl gallate.
Ecology: rarely if ever troubled by browsing deer or rabbits; host to many pathogenic fungi, infecting nearby susceptible crops; host to Trypanosomatid flagellates, insect vectors, Aphis craccivora, a vector of the rosette virus disease of groundnut, Aphis gossypii.
Use: medicinal; tender young leaves and shoots, cooked, as a vegetable.

BotanyHerb; annual, short-lived; densely hairy; prostrate to ascending; 15 to 50 cm tall and wide.
Stem: little-branched, one to several stems arising from a central tap-root.
Flower: blooming throughout the year.
Fruit: capsules.
Seed: released explosively when dried.