Spreading annual or short-lived perennial to 30 cm high, monoecious. Branches slender. Leaves thin, obovate, sinuate-dentate, scaly on both surfaces, apex rounded, base cuneate; lamina 10–20 mm long; petiole slender. Male flowers in distal axils, perianth glabrescent. Female flowers numerous in scattered glomerules. Fruiting bracteoles: when immature oblong and shortly stipitate, the stipe eventually becoming spongy; when mature narrowly cylindrical, 3–5 mm long, of two distinct portions, lower third to half a cylindrical firm spongy straw-coloured stipe; upper portion a somewhat compressed green to straw-coloured thin walled, longitudinally nerved tube, obtuse. Seed obovate, radicle lateral and slightly exserted.
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