Annual, up to 30 (-40) cm, glabrous except for leaf axils, glaucous, densely branched from the base. Leaves alternate, thick, terete, 3-12 ´ 1-2 mm long, firm, dilated at base and half-clasping, obtuse and terminating in a long caducous bristle with a tuft of long white hairs. Flowering glomerules in the axils of nearly all the leaves; bracteoles ovate. Perianth segments membranous, ovate, becoming oblong in fruit, 1-nerved, with pellucid membranous wings. Stamens united by their filaments into two clusters of 2 or 3, with but one anther to each cluster. Fruit round or round-oval, 1.25-1.75 mm long, with thin membranous whitish pericarp; seeds olivaceous.