Annual herb up to 1 m. tall, subglabrous or minutely puberulent on younger parts. Leaves 1–11 × 0·3–2·7 cm., narrowly elliptical to lanceolate, narrowly cuneate at the base, the apex subacute; main veins on each side of the midrib 6–12; petiole 2–15 mm. long, winged. Sepals 4, rarely 5, (1·3)2–3·5 × (0·5) 0·7–1·8 mm., deltate, glabrous or minutely puberulent. Petals 1–3 × 0·7–2 mm., elliptical. Stamens usually as many as the sepals, rarely more; filaments 0·3–0·7 mm. long; anthers 0·5–0·7 × 0·5–0·7 mm., shedding pollen directly on the stigma at anthesis. Pollen shed in tetrads. Disk slightly elevated, glabrous. Style 0·7–1·5 mm. long; stigma 0·4–0·5 mm. thick, globose. Capsule 3–16 (19) mm. long, thin-walled, glabrous or puberulent, terete, pale brown, readily and irregularly loculicidal; capsule sessile or on a pedicel up to 6 mm. long, often more or less nodding. Seeds 0·3–0·5 × 0·2–0·25 mm., pluriseriate in each locule of the capsule, free, brown with fine brown lines, ellipsoid-rounded; raphe very narrow and inconspicuous. Chromosome number n=8.
