Slender tufted annual.. Leaves in a small basal rosette, pale bronzy green, much shorter than the scapes, broadly linear, 1–4.5 cm. long, 1–3 mm. wide, spongy, subacute.. Scapes up to 50 or more in an erect bunch, slender, flexuous, 6–20 cm. high, 4–5-ribbed; sheaths equalling the leaves, crowded together, the limb scarious, acute.. Capitulum globose to slightly ovoid, greyish brown or blackish, 3.5–5.5 mm. diameter, hard, glossy, completely glabrous, floral bracts loosely imbricate, the flowers scarcely visible among them; involucral bracts small, shorter than the capitulum width, light brown, firm, obovate-oblong, the tips rounded and incurved, reflexed at maturity; floral bracts angular-spathulate, ± flat, grey, glabrous, acute; receptacle villous; flowers trimerous, 1.2–1.5 mm. long, pedicellate.. Male flowers: calyx spathate, thin, brownish grey, the free lobes subtruncate; petals very small, unequal, eglandular, the longest exserted from the calyx, 0.5 mm. long with a few small white papillae at the tip; anthers black.. Female flowers: sepals very unequal, the two lateral deeply concave, frequently obtriangular, the keel gibbous with a broad spongy wing, narrowed to the base, tip acute, a few hyaline hairs often present inside, otherwise glabrous, third sepal linear to narrowly oblong; petals slightly unequal,narrowly oblanceolate-oblong or the two smaller linear, eglandular or the two smaller with small glands or sometimes emarginate, greyish, the longest exserted from the calyx and often tipped with a few small white papillae.. Seeds ellipsoid, 0.35 mm. long, light brown to reddish brown, with conspicuous transverse rows of white hair-like papillae.. Fig. 3/1–3; fig. 4/5.
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