Short-lived perennial (?) or annual herb, glabrous, 8-45 cm tall, with taproot, caespitose; branches erect or decumbent, not rooting at the base; stems 4-lined, flattened above, densely pellucid-gland-streaked, the lower internodes shorter than the leaves, the upper ones to 2 times as long as the leaves. Leaves sessile, erect or more rarely spreading, not or scarcely imbricate, chartaceous, paler beneath; lamina 7-25 mm long, 1.5-6.0 mm wide, linear to elliptic-oblong or lanceolate, the apex acute to subacute, the margin entire, plane or sometimes revolute, the base narrowly to broadly cuneate, the lateral vein pairs 0-3, without or with obscure reticulate venation, the laminar glands punctiform to linear, large to small, more prominent beneath, the marginal glands present or absent, the upper epidermal cells subbullate. Inflorescences 1-many-flowered, regularly dichasial or partly monochasial, rarely with some foliate branches from the uppermost node, frequently with subsidiary inflorescence branches from the lower nodes; pedicels 1-7 mm long in fruit; bracts and bracteoles foliaceous belt smaller to subulate. Flowers 0.4-1.0 cm in diameter; sepals 3.0-5.5 mm long, 0.5-1.4 mm wide, unequal, lanceolate, oblong-elliptic or linear, acute to subacute, 3-7-nerved, with the nerves scarcely prominent; petals deep yellow to orange, 4.0-6.5 mm long, 1.5-2.0 mm wide, ca. 1.3-2.0 times as long as the sepals, obovate; stamens 12-30, irregularly grouped, the longest 3.0-5.5 mm long, ca. 1 2-? times as long as the petals, the anther gland amber; ovary 1.5-2.0 mm long, 0.7-1.0 mm wide, narrowly ovoid-ellipsoid, the styles 3, 1.0-1.5 mm long, ca. 0.75-1.0 times as long as the ovary, the stigmas broadly capitate, the placentas 3, parietals with many ovules. Fruits 5-7 mm long, 1.5-3.() mm wide, narrowly cylindric or ovoid-cylindric, acute to obtuse, ca. 1.3-2.0 times as long as the sepals; seeds ca. 0.6 mm long, cylindric, longitudinally ribbed-scalariform.
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