Erect annual herb, c. 0.2–0.75 m. tall, simple to considerably branched from the base or in the upper half only, branches at c. 30 degrees from the stem, stem and branches more or less angled, striate, moderately furnished with multicellular hairs. Inflorescences terminal on the stem and branches, whitish, very densely spicate and remaining so in fruit, 1.5–7×1.25–1.5 cm., the axis (not visible until fruit-fall) more or less densely furnished with whitish, multicellular hairs. Bracts narrowly lanceolate, 4–5 mm. long, hyaline with a narrow white central band, glabrous or ciliate, often slightly erose-denticulate, reaching over halfway along the perianth; bracteoles almost identical; bracts and bracteoles clothing the rhachis with a dense scaly mass after fruit fall. Tepals narrowly elliptic, 5–7 mm. long, glabrous, all more or less similar, with narrow hyaline margins, a shortly excurrent midrib, a pair of long lateral veins and 1–2 shorter pairs. Stamens fused into a tube for about half their length, less than half as long as the perianth, with no free pseudostaminodes, the free portions of the tube rounded into the antheriferous apex or the latter longer than the short blunt teeth on each side of it. Ovary 10–18-ovulate, rounded above; stigmas 3, spreading or recurved and shorter than the finally exserted, 1.5–2 mm. long style. Capsule c. 5–6 mm. long, circumcissile, the apex rather shortly narrowed to the style and sometimes with a slight shoulder, glabrous or rarely (not in the Flora Zambesiaca area?) with a few colourless papillose hairs. Seeds c. 1 mm. in diam.
