stem herbaceous, erect, glabrous, paniculately branched above; branches numerous, ascending, terete, striate, glabrous; leaves sessile, 1/4– 3/4 in. long, 1/3– 1/2 lin. broad, alternate or fasciculate, linear-subulate, acute, shortly mucronate, thick and subfleshy, glabrous, green, with revolute margins; inflorescences distant, of 1 fertile flower with 2 sterile ones; bracteoles 2 lin. long, ovate, acute, membranous, with a strong midrib prolonged into a cuspidate point, each bracteole enclosing a tuft of pale brownish woolly hairs which covers the sterile flower, a stalked fascicle of recurved spines (after flowering the tuft of hairs enlarges and almost conceals the fruit); 2 outer sepals reaching 4 1/2 lin. long, linear-lanceolate, membranous, with a wide midrib running out into a cuspidate mucro; 3 inner sepals 4 lin. long, similar in shape to the outer, all silky villous; stamens 3 1/4 lin. long; filaments flat, linear, membranous, about 1/4 lin. broad; anthers reaching nearly 2 lin. long, linear; ovary villous; style scarcely any, stout; stigma with a tuft of hairs; capsule softly villous; seed doubled on itself, somewhat horseshoe-shaped, appearing 2-lobed, compressed, red. null
