Rounded annual or short-lived perennial to 30 cm high, monoecious. Leaves elliptic, broadly elliptic or ovate, 1–2 cm long, acute to obtuse, entire to sinuate dentate (or rarely deeply serrate), narrowed at base into a short petiole or sessile, scurfy on both surfaces. Flowers of mixed sexes in axillary glomerules. Fruiting bracteoles sessile, fused, broadly ellipsoidal, to globular 4–6 mm long, rarely to 8 mm, shortly apiculate, inflated; epidermal covering thin, loosely scurfy, supported on a network of fibrous veins; utricle in centre of bracteoles, cavity compressed elliptic, with a thin woody wall. Seed erect, broadly elliptic; radicle lateral, erect.
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