Annual (or biennal?) erect herb, c. 40 cm. high. Stem thick (c. 5 mm. in diameter), sub–4-gonous and unbranched below, 4-gonous and much branched above; floriferous branches ascending, simple or few-branched, narrowly 4-winged, the wings serrulate. Stem-leaves c. 30 x 10 mm., decussate, lanceolate, subacute at the apex, margin revolute, auriculate at the base, the auricles roundish, inconspicuously penninerved, the midrib impressed above, prominent beneath; leaves of the branches similar to those of stems, but smaller. Dichasia 2–7(many)-flowered, up to 12 mm. long; pedicels 1–8 mm. long, 4-gonous; bracteoles c. 1 mm. long, scarious, linear. Flowers 4-merous (heterostylous?). Calyx c. 2 mm. long, broadly campanulate, 8-nerved, the nerves prominent; lobes erect, equalling c. 4 of the tube-length; appendages very short, curved. Petals 4, 2·5 x 2·5 mm., subcircular, reddish-purple, clawed at the base, slightly emarginate at the apex. Stamens 8, inserted slightly below the middle of the calyx-tube, exserted at anthesis, the episepalous exceeding the lobes by c. 2 mm., the epipetalous by c. 1 mm. Ovary c. 1 mm. in diameter, globose; style c. 5 mm. long, exceeding by c. 1·5 mm. the episepalous stamens (long-styled flower?). Capsule globose, equalling the calyx-lobes. Seeds c. 0·15 mm. long.
