Weak decumbent to erect perennial c. 25 cm high, monoecious. Leaves thin, narrow to broadly obovate, obtuse, lamina 15–40 mm long, coarsely and bluntly toothed, both surfaces with a scaly sheen or the upper almost glabrous, narrowed at base into a petiole 5–10 mm long. Flowers in mixed clusters in the upper leaf axils and in terminal spikes or panicles. Fruiting bracteoles rhombic, c. 4 mm high and wide, spinulose on margin, free except at the deltoid base which passes into a short stipe, c. 0.5 mm long; appendages on both bracteoles forming a spiny semicircle on lower half, or the semicircle divided into two. Seed with erect radicle.
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