Annual to perennating stout herb, glabrous to hirsute, up to 100 cm long, decumbent to erect, branched and leafy, green to purplish-violaceous; roots slender to tuberous with sugar storage. Leaves usually up to 12 x 6 cm, petiolate; radical rosulate, ovate, cuneate to subcordate; cauline rhombic-oblong to linear-lanceolate. Floral clusters (1-) 2-4-flowered, arranged in long, slender, ± interrupted spikes, uaually with smaller subtending leaves (bracts); bracteoles very small or aborted. Perianth herbaceous, green, 2-5 mm long, as long as or exceeding the diameter of the fruit, united and indurated below, usually incurved and ± keeled.