Plants wandlike or candelabra-form, 10–80 cm. Basal leaves persisting; petiole present or absent; blade lanceolate to linear, margins irregularly deeply lobed to dentate. Cauline leaves: petiole present or absent (proximal leaves), absent (distal leaves); blade lanceolate to linear (proximal leaves), orbiculate to lanceolate (distal leaves), to 18 cm, margins irregularly deeply lobed to dentate proximally, dentate or entire distally. Bracts green, orbiculate to ovate, 3.4–6.6 × 2.5–5.9 mm, width 3/4 to ± equal length, often concealing capsule, margins sinuate or entire. Flowers: sepals 1–3 mm; petals yellow, 2-5 mm, apex acute; stamens 10–20, 1.5–4 mm, filaments heteromorphic, 5 outermost elliptic, distally 2-lobed, inner filiform, unlobed; styles 2–3(–5) mm. Capsules cylindric, 6–13 × 1.5–2.5 mm, axillary curved to 20° at maturity, usually inconspicuously, occasionally prominently, longitudinally ribbed. Seeds 4–10, in 1 row distal to mid fruit, dark brown or tan, dark-mottled, triangular prisms, surface ±smooth to minutely tessellate under 10× magnification; recurved flap over hilum absent; seed coat cell outer periclinal wall flat. 2n = 18.
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