stem shrubby, slender, erect, subsimple; leaves connato-perfoliate, ovate, acute or acuminate, patent or squarrose, subdistant, cartilagineo-ciliate, green; cymes in a long, interrupted, contracted panicle (thyrsus), the branches corymbose, dense, with tooth-like bracts; calyx short, ovate-oblong, glabrous, keeled; petals connate at base, oblong, submucronulate; styles shortly subulate. The slender branches are often 2 feet long or more, with subdistant or distant leaf pairs, glabrous and angular. Leaves scarcely uncial, 1/2 inch wide, impunctate. The cartilaginous fringe is generally conspicuous, but sometimes deficient or obsolete. Flowers small. Thyrsus 6–12 inches long, its branches 1 inch long.
