Annual or short-lived perennial herb. Stems prostrate, thick and tough, pilose and finely papillose, mostly part of the largely apparently monochasial inflorescence. Leaves very regularly alternate, flat on the ground; petiole 3–16 mm long; leaf-blade suborbicular to oblanceolate, up to 4 x 4 cm, base decurrent into petiole, tip rounded to bluntly subacuminate, pilose above and below. Flowers (4–)5-merous, apparently solitary in axils or forks of branches, sessile. Tepals acute, yellowish inside, reddish or green and pilose outside. Stamens 12–15 in groups alternating with tepals. Styles short, soon lost. Fruit (4–)5-sided/star-shaped, 5–8 mm diam., depressed in centre, opening by (4–)5 inflexed valves which remain attached near the centre. Seeds many, reniform, concentrically ridged.