Annual herb, erect, 15–30 (52) cm. tall, glabrous throughout, simple or branched from the base and/or upwards with long, widely divaricate branches; stem and branches slender and wiry, striate-sulcate. Leaves linear-filiform, 8–45 × 0.3–1 mm., rarely oblanceolate and up to 34 × 8 mm., subacute, the midrib prominent on the inferior surface. Inflorescences silvery-stramineous, of dense short spikes up to 4 cm. long and 6–9 mm. broad, terminal on the stem and branches. Bracts and bracteoles similar, deltoid-ovate, acute, c. 1.25–1.5 mm. long, shortly mucronate with the thick, yellowish, excurrent midrib. Tepals oblong-elliptic, glabrous, shortly mucronate with the excurrent midrib, basally with a narrow green vitta and a short lateral nerve on each side of the midrib, otherwise hyaline, 3–3.5 × 1.5 mm., minutely denticulate at the apical margins. Filaments with the free apex shorter than the basal cup; no intermediate teeth present. Ovary 4–6-ovulate; style c. 2 mm. long; stigma solitary, linear or very shortly bilobed. Capsule subglobose, not exserted beyond the perianth. Seeds compressed-oval, black, shiny with a prominent hilum, the testa reticulate centrally and punctate in the corners of the areolae, smoother and epunctate along the margins.
