Annual or short-lived perennial herb, basal part of stem creeping and rooting, apical part erect, 2–18 cm long, subglabrous to crisped-puberulous. Leaves sometimes mottled, in a terminal rosette (rarely an extra whorl of leaves on middle part of stem), subsessile or petiole up to 5(–10) mm long; lamina elliptic-obovate, largest 7–17≈2.5–5.5 cm, apex acute to subacute, base attenuate to cuneate, margin entire to faintly crenate; below sparsely crisped-puberulous along veins, above with sparse long hairs along midrib and uniformly scattered hairs on lamina. Spikes 2–13 cm long, unbranched (rarely branched); peduncle 1–8 cm long; sterile bracts not imbricate or ± imbricate towards apex of peduncle, broadly ovate-elliptic, 3–6 mm long, acute to acuminate, glabrous but for finely ciliate margin, indistinctly keeled; fertile bracts green with scarious white margin, broadly ovate-elliptic, 4.5–7 mm long, acute to acuminate, glabrous but for finely ciliate margin, indistinctly keeled; bracteoles lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, 3–4 mm long, subacute to acute, crisped-puberulous in a central band and finely ciliate near apex. Sepals 4–5 mm long, ciliate in apical half, otherwise glabrous; dorsal elliptic or broadly so, acute; lateral elliptic or narrowly so, with a dorsally attached seta ± 1 mm long; ventral lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, acute to acuminate. Corolla white, often cleistogamous or only opening partially; tube 3–4 mm long; lobes 2–3 mm long. Stamens 2, subsessile; anthers ± 0.5 mm long. Stigma erect and spathulate or rounded and ± bent in cleistogamous flowers. Capsule 4–5 mm long, glabrous. Seed ± 0.75 mm long. Fig. 1, 8–9, p. 13.