Herb to 25 cm, generally purplish red in most of its parts except the corolla. Stem often repeatedly branched in apical part, 1-3 mm wide, glabrous. Leaves 1.5-2.5 mm long, glabrous. Spike 0.5-6(-12) cm by 2.5-4.5 mm, very dense, rounded at apex. Bracts elliptic to obovate, 1-2 by c. 1 mm, rounded apically, glabrous, patent with slightly upturned apex, persistent till or after the fruits have fallen, at last re-flexed; bracteoles always present, subulate, c. 1 mm long. Flowers 1.5-2.7 mm long, white but purple in bud. Sepals connate for ½-¾, subequal, glabrous. Stamens usually 3 and then anthers sessile, rarely 2 and then filaments free to halfway. Disk very indistinct, semi-annular, enclosing and fully adnate to the basal part of the lateral and lower side of the ovary, hardly accrescent in fruit. Ovary broadly elliptic; style up to 0.1 mm long; stigma very asymmetrical, 0.2 mm long, the upper stigmatic lobe oblique, rounded, the lower lobe narrower and longer, directed a little downwards, hollow at apex; gynoecium shorter than androecium. Fruit broadly obovate, 0.7-0.9 by 0.7-0.9 mm, at base tightly enclosed by the fully adnate and very indistinct disk, the whole enclosed by the slightly longer sepals.
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