Plants 10-25 cm tall. Stems in clusters arising from enlarged basal pulvinus, unbranched or with a few short lateral branches, slender, terete, rigid, ca. 1.5 mm thick, thinly tomentose when young, glabrous except near flowers when mature. Flowers mostly unisexual (plants monoecious), in small globose clusters; bracts imbricate, ovate-elliptic, ca. 1 × 0.6 mm, apex acute; bracteoles at periphery of flower clusters, usually 3-6 in involucre. Male flowers subglobose, ca. 1.6 mm in diam.; perianth lobes 4 or 5, triangular. Female flowers: perianth obovoid, 1.5-1.7 mm in diam., lobes as large as or larger than in male. Discs slightly conic; stigmas ± exserted. Drupe ovoid-ellipsoid, ca. 4 × 1.5 mm, 5-ridged, base wider than apex; persistent style slightly exserted. Fl. May, fr. Sep.
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