A common weed in all parts of the state, usually in dry soil. It is found in fallow and cultivated grounds, along roadsides and railroads, and in open woodland and pastures. My Randolph and Tipton County specimens were named Chamaesyce Lansingii Millsp. by C. F. Millspaugh and I reported them as such. I am now referring them to this species.
Annual; stems to 8 dm, obliquely ascending at least in the upper half, the lower half often erect, the younger parts puberulent, often in a single longitudinal strip, with usually incurved hairs to 0.3 mm, the older parts glabrous or nearly so; lvs opposite, oblong or oblong-ovate, 1-3.5 cm, about a third as wide, serrulate, usually conspicuously inequilateral; fr 2-2.5 mm, strongly 3-lobed, glabrous; seeds gray or pale brown, 1-1.5 mm; 2n=12. Dry or moist soil; N.H. to Mich. and N.D., s. to Fla. and Tex.; abundant as a weed in lawns and gardens and intr. elsewhere in the world. June-Oct. (E. maculata, misapplied; E. preslii; Chamaesyce rafinesquii)
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
