An erect simple or slightly-branched annual, 1–2 ft. or more in height, sparingly hispidly pilose, especially on the lower part of the stem and lower leaves. Branches terete or obsoletely angled. Leaves alternate, sessile, pilose when young, lanceolate, acute, 6–12 lines or more long, undulate and obscurely toothed on the margin. Flowers numerous, small, in loose racemes or sub-cymose panicles a foot or more in length; bracts small, linear, much shorter than the slender pedicels, which vary from 3 to 12 lines in length. Calyx-tube glabrous, about 1 1/2 lines long; lobes about equal in length. Petals ovate-lanceolate, much broader at the base than in the middle, exceeding 2 lines in length. Capsule turbinate, 5-ribbed.
The plate in Delessert represents the petals as linear-lanceolate, but otherwise agrees with the type. In Kew herbarium there is a specimen collected by Barter on the Niger (826) which seems to connect this with C. hirsutum in its more hispidly pilose calyx with longer lobes.
