Annual herb to 30 cm. Leaves obovate to orbicular-rhomboid c. 15–25 mm long, scaly on both surfaces, apex rounded, base cuneate and narrowed to a petiole, ±½ length of lamina, margin sinuate-dentate. Male flowers glabrous or almost so, in glomerules c. 3 mm diam., terminal or forming disjunct spikes or panicles. Female flowers in scattered axillary glomerules. Fruiting bracteoles sessile, united to near apex, glabrous, glossy; tube turbinate with rounded base, 2–4 mm long, spongy, upwards into a pair of horizontal, wing-like, entire, slightly spongy, auriculate appendages, 5–8 mm wide, the margins of which are decurrent down tube; apex of tube rounded, its centre apiculate with the minute narrowly triangular terminal lobes. Seed with basal, horizontal radicle.
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