Annual or short-lived perennial herb up to 10 cm high, branching mainly from base, stems often absent or with only 1–2 internodes; glabrous throughout. Leaves in dense whorls, sessile, obovate-spathulate to oblanceolate, 5–28 x 2–8 mm, base cuneate, tip rounded or acute, apparently fleshy. Cymes long-pedunculate, dense, up to 1 cm long; branches scorpioid, often cone-like; bracts closely appressed, overlapping, pale with well defined brown central stripe, sometimes with obscure fleshy keel. Flowers sessile; sepals lanceolate, c. 4 mm long, bract-like. Petals oblong-oblanceolate, about a third as long as sepals, white, margin lacerate. Stamens 3(–5). Style c. 1 mm long. Capsule ovoid, c. two thirds as long as sepals, very thin-walled, valves apparently opening at tip only, without thick margins. Seeds numerous, ovoid, shiny, c. 0.4 mm long.
