Erect annual herb, 10-30 cm tall. Stems striate, sparingly and minutely asperulous-scabrid. Leaves 3-foliolate, petiolate; petioles glabrous to sparingly asperous, up to 1 • 5 cm long; leaflets shortly petiolulate, linear-filiform, up to 2-5 cm long and 0-5-1 mm broad, glabrous and channelled above, sparingly and minutely asperulous-scabrid below and on the margins, apex acute. Inflorescence a terminal, loose raceme; bracts similar to the leaves, lower ones 3-foliolate, progressively smaller and unifoliolate upÂwards, persistent; pedicels 5-8 mm long, longer than the gynophore, sparingly and minutely asperulous. Petals pink to mauve without a yellow transverse band, elliptic to obovate, 4-6 mm long, 2 mm broad, apiculate, attenuate at the base into a short claw. Stamens 5-6, all fertile (?), somewhat unequal; filaments slender, the longer up to 8 mm long, the shorter 5-6 mm long with at least one with a minute clavate apical swelling and then with anther reduced in size; anthers 1-1-5 mm long. Ovary almost sessile, stigma scarcely demarcated. Capsule linear, 3-5-6 ? 5 cm long, gradually tapering to each end; gynophore 1-3 mm long; valves glabrous with about 4 longitudinal nerves; style 3-5 mm long. Seeds circular in outline, dark brown, somewhat flattened, transversely ridged.
