An annual herb; stems branching, rather stout, soft, hispid upwards, 2–3 ft. high. Leaves short-petioled, lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate or linear, acute, the lowest often obtuse, margin sharply serrate, base cuneate or somewhat rounded, 2–6 in. long, 1/4–2 in. wide, medium green above, paler beneath, hispid on the nerves especially on the under surface; mainnerves 8–20 on each side, very prominent beneath; petiole 1/10– 3/4 in. long, hispid; stipules triangular, acuminate or subulate, caducous. Racemes 2–3 in. long; rhachis and pedicels hispid; bracts lanceolate, small. Male sepals 5, ovate-triangular, acute, glabrous or pubescent. Petals 5, in African specimens always unequal, 3 larger as long as the sepals, the 2 others small or very small, all obovate-oblong, clawed. Stamens about 10; filaments short. Female sepals 6, unequal, obovate-oblong, acute or acuminate, 3 inner considerably larger than the 3 outer, or sometimes 5, unequal, the 2 outer small, the 2 inner large, the other midway in size and position. Petals 5, oblong-lanceolate, clawed, rather shorter than the outer sepals. Ovary closely beset with narrow-subulate gland-tipped processes. Capsule muricate and setose, 1/4 in. wide; accrescent sepals 1/10– 1/8 in. long. Seeds tawny or brownish, spherical.
