Herbs, annual or short-lived perennial, 10-40 cm tall. Root terete, single, 30-40 cm × 3-8 mm. Stem sometimes branched basally, 3-7 mm thick, branches ascending. Leaves alternate; stipules absent; petiole absent or nearly so; leaf blade linear-oblong, 1-3 cm × 2.5-4 mm, base truncate or subattenuate below, rounded higher up, margin entire, apex rounded or obtuse; lateral veins few, inconspicuous, at acute angle to midrib. Inflorescence an inconspicuous terminal few-rayed cyathium; primary involucral leaves similar to normal leaves, primary rays ca. 3, robust and ascending, dichotomous; cyathophylls 2, similar to normal leaves. Cyathium sessile; involucre broadly campanulate, 2-3 × 3-5 mm, lobes rounded; glands 4, pale brown, crescent-shaped, apex 2-horned, horns light green. Male flowers many, not exserted from involucre. Female flower: ovary exserted from cup, smooth, glabrous; styles free, persistent; style arms 2-lobed. Fruiting peduncle ca. 3 mm; capsule subglobose, ca. 3.5 × 3.5 mm, smooth or obscurely reticulate, glabrous. Seeds ovoid-terete, ca. 2.5 × 1.5-2 mm, gray or dark gray, adaxially striate; caruncle present, stipitate. Fl. Apr-Jul, fr. May-Aug.
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Glaucous glabrous annual herb to 25 cm. high.. Leaves sessile, linear to linear-lanceolate, to 6 × 0.5 cm., entire.. Cymes axillary and in terminal 3-branched umbels forking many times, with primary rays to 5 cm. long; bracts leaf-like.. Cyathia subsessile, 1.5 × 1.5 mm., with cup-shaped involucres; glands 4, transversely oblong, 0.8 mm. broad with 2 horns to 0.8 mm. long; lobes rounded, margin ciliate.. Male flowers: bracteoles linear, apices ciliate; stamens 2 mm. long.. Female flower: styles 1 mm. long, joined at the base, spreading, bifid to almost halfway.. Capsule exserted on a pedicel to 4 mm. long, deeply 3-lobed, 3.5 × 4 mm.. Seeds ovoid, 2.5 × 1.7 mm., blackish brown, with a close network of paler ridges, and a cream caruncle 1 mm. across.
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