Annual herb 3 cm tall. Main stem prostrate; branchlets ascending. Leaves alternate; submerged leaves trifid, lamina 6 mm long; emergent leaves linear-lanceolate, erect, lamina 3–4 mm long. Bracteoles (female flowers only) linear, 0.7 mm long. Flowers 4-merous. Male flowers in a terminal cluster of 2 or 3; pedicels 0.2–0.3 mm long; sepals absent; petals 0.8 mm long; stamens 4. Female flowers sessile, solitary; sepals and petals absent; ovary 4-locular, stigmas almost sessile. Fruit sessile, cubiform; mericarps ovoid, 0.8 mm long, apex oblique with an asymmetric collar, dorsally with dense spreading blunt spines to 0.3 mm long, sometimes almost absent towards apex.