Erect, 25-80 cm tall, glabrous, annual herb, usually much branched from the base. Branches, ± spreading, thin and striated; internodes 2-2.4 cm long. Leaves few, 10-50 x 3-8 mm, linear-lanceolate to oblong-elliptic, acute, entire, subsessile, often caducous. Ochrea hyaline, 3-7 (-9) mm long, ovate, fringed-lacerate, distinctly nerved, flowering branches leafy only in the lower part. Flowers solitary or in axillary clusters of 1-4, 2.0-3 mm across, pedicellate, pedicel 1-2 mm long. Ochreolae 1.5-2.5 mm long, ovate, lacerate to fringed, tubular, membranous at the margin, green in the middle. Tepals 5, greenish to pinkish, 1.5-3.0 x 1.0-1.5 mm, lobed almost up to the base, lanceolate, acute, entire, unqual. Stamens 5(-7), filaments short, equal, ovary 0.75-1.25 (-1.5) x 0.5-1.0 mm, ovate, trigonous, styles 3, stigmas capitate. Nuts 2-3 x 1.0-2 mm, triquetrous, dark brown, shining, glabrous.