Botanical name: Micrococca mercurialis    Family: Euphorbiaceae (Castor family)
Synonyms: Mercurialis alternifolia , Tragia mercurialis, Claoxylon mercuriale

Mercury Doughwood is an annual herb. Leaves are alternate, 2-4 x 1-2.5 cm, ovate or ovate-lanceshaped, base rounded, sawtoothed on margins, tip pointed or shortly tapering, puberulous, membranous; leaf-stalk to 2.5 cm long. Flowers are borne in interrupted clusters, on racemes in leaf-axils, often drooping. Bracts are minute. Male flowers are minute, about 1.5 mm across; perianth 1-seriate, 3-lobed, lobes ovate; stamens 3-5, free, with 6-8-fringed with hairs glandular scales between filaments. Female flowers about 2 mm across; tepals 3, lanceshaped, shortly fused; ovary 3-lobed, sparsely velvet-hairy, 3-locular; ovules 3; styles 3; stigma linear, plumose. Capsule 4-5 mm across, 3-lobed, becoming hairless. Seeds about 1mm across, spherical, minutely arillate. Mercury Doughwood is found in Tropical Africa, Arabia, India, Sri Lanka and Myanmar.

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The flower labeled Mercury Doughwood is ...