Annual, 10-40 cm. Stems ascending to erect, crisp glandular-pubescent, viscid. Leaves varying in size, ovate, the lower petiolate, the upper sessile, all mucronulate, subglabrous. Inflorescences dichasial. Bracts narrow, leaf-like; bracteoles scarious, ovate. Flowers pink-violet, sometimes white, the alar flowers with long pedicels, the rest with very short ones, flowers usually hermaphrodite but often together with female ones. Calyx 1.4-2 cm., cylindrical, club-shaped in fruit, viscid-puberulent, often red, obsoletely nerved; teeth short, ovate, obtuse, ciliate and white-margined. Petals 2-lobed, 2-dentate at base of limb; coronal scales ovate, obtuse. Capsule 6¬8 mm., oblong, much shorter than carpophore. Seeds wrinkled-tuberculate, with flat¬tened or concave faces umbilicate at centre. Fl. January-April.