Plants glabrous or glabrescent. Stems erect, much-branched, 0.1-0.8 m; proximal branches ascending. Leaves: petiole shorter than blade; blade narrowly linear-lanceolate to linear, 2-8 × 0.2-1.2(-1.7) cm, base narrowly cuneate to narrowly decurrent, margins erose, crispate, or irregularly undulate, apex acute to subobtuse. Inflorescences terminal spikes, erect, usually stiff. Bracts completely enfolding flower; of pistillate flowers with prominent excurrent midrib, venation distinct, broadly triangular to deltate, 5+ mm, longer than tepals, margins erose, crenate, or denticulate, apex acute or acuminate; of staminate flowers shorter than tepals, apex acute. Pistillate flowers: outer tepals rudimentary, less that 1.2 mm; inner tepals with venation distinct, 3-4(-5) mm, apex acute, with terminal mucro; style branches spreading; stigmas 3. Staminate flowers: tepals 5, equal or subequal, 2-3 mm, margins erose to denticulate, outer tepals with apex subobtuse to acute-acuminate; inner tepals with apex distinctly acuminate or mucronulate; stamens 5. Utricles light brown, elliptic to obovate-elliptic, 2(-2.5) mm, shorter than outer tepals, slightly rugose to smooth. Seeds dark reddish brown to brown, 1-1.3 mm diam., shiny.
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An annual herb. It grows 10-80 cm tall. The stems have stripes. The leaves are alternate and sword shaped. They are slender and 2-8 cm long by 2-12 mm wide. The flowers are pale green. They are in dense spikes. The seeds are brown and 1 mm across.
It is a temperate and subtropical plant. In Mexico it grows between 1,000-2,000 m above sea level. Arizona
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