Herbs annual, 20-80 cm tall. Stem erect or decumbent, 4-angled or terete below, ribbed, green striate, usually branched throughout; branches slender, obliquely spreading, slightly furfuraceous. Petiole 6-12 mm; leaf blade ovate-oblong to ovate-lanceolate, 2-7 × 0.8-2 cm, both surfaces gray-green, base cuneate to broadly so, margin entire, rarely with 1 to several pairs of undulate, obtuse teeth, apex obtuse or shortly acuminate. Inflorescences of axillary glomerules. Male flowers 4-merous. Female flowers 3-10 per glomerule. Fruiting bracts connate throughout, inflated, ovoid or cylindric, hardened, with prominent, reticulate veins and 1 or 2 irregularly placed, thorny processes on both sides, apex with 3 short teeth; pedicel 3-4 mm. Utricle compressed globose; pericarp white, membranous, adnate to seed. Seed vertical, brown, 1.5-2 mm in diam.; radicle superior. Fl. and fr. Jul-Sep.
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