Annual herb to 3 m. high, in Africa absolutely glabrous, even under a x 20 lens; but a variant with ovaries, sepals, midribs and lateral nerves of leaves minutely puberulous occurs in America. Leaves lanceolate, sometimes ovate or elliptic, mostly 2–13 cm. long and 0.5–4.3 cm. wide, acute or subacuminate, rarely obtuse at apex; petiole 3–15 mm. long. Sepals almost always 4 (5 seen only in one flower), 3–6 mm. long, 1–1.5 mm. wide. Petals yellow, elliptic or obovate, 4–5 mm. long, 2–2.5 mm. wide. Stamens twice as many as sepals. Apex of ovary, supporting the 0.5–1 mm. long style, flat or only slightly raised. Capsules thin-walled, 1–1.9 cm. long, 2.5–5 mm. wide; pedicels 0–8 mm. long. Seeds pluriseriate in each cell, free, oblong-ellipsoid, narrow-raphed, 0.3–0.4 (–0.5) mm. long, 0.2–0.3 mm. wide, pale brown. Fig. 2/2, (p. 7).