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An erect perennial herb. Stems 1/2–1 ft. long, pubescent, many times dichotomously branched. Leaves sessile, spreading, lanceolate, opposite or verticillate, the lower 1–1 1/2 in. long. Clusters of flowers very numerous, terminal on the branchlets; bracts at first comparatively small, finally overtopping the flowers, with many stramineous pungent divisions, so that the heads look like a prickly ball about 1 in. in diam. Perianth 2 lin. long, green; segments oblong, tipped with a spreading mucro which becomes as long as the blade. Staminodes lingulate, longer than the fertile stamens.