Erect or rarely prostrate annual usually branched herb (2–)7.5–60 cm. tall, with grooved ± glabrous or slightly papillate-puberulous often reddish stems. Leaf-blades linear-lanceolate to narrowly lanceolate, 1–5.3 cm. long, 2–5.5 mm. wide, acute at the apex, narrowed to the base, minutely scabrid above, glabrous beneath; true petiole absent; stipule-sheath 1.5–2 mm. long, glabrous or pubescent, 1.5–2 mm. long, bearing 7 setae 2–4 mm. Flowers in dense very compact spherical clusters at most nodes, 0.6–1(–1.5) cm. in diameter; bracteoles filiform, numerous, 2 mm. long. Calyx-tube ovoid, 1 mm. long, pubescent; teeth 4, equal or slightly unequal, subulate, 0.6–1.2 mm. long, scabrid. Corolla white or pink; tube narrowly funnel-shaped, 1.3 mm. long; lobes 0.8–1.1 mm. long, 0.4 mm. wide, with some long flattened hairs at the apex. Filaments exserted ± 1 mm. Style exserted 0.5 mm. Capsule ellipsoid, 1.5 mm. long, glabrous or ± sparsely pubescent. Seeds chestnut-brown, shiny, oblong-ellipsoid or narrowly oblong, 1.3 mm. long, 0.55 mm. wide, 0.4 mm. thick, with a wide ventral groove. Fig. 50/13, p. 342.
