Annual, erect or ascending, branched herb up to 15 cm high. Stem terete, set with long erect and short curved hairs. Leaves linear to linear-lanceolate, 5-15 by c. 1 mm, subsessile, mucronate, with recurved margin, sparingly set with long hairs, l-nerved. Racemes supra-axillary, usually not more than 1 cm long, very dense. Bracts persistent, lanceolate, c. 1 mm long, hairy. Flowers 4-5 mm long, whitish with green alae. Sepals lanceolate, acuminate, hairy, the alae asymmetric, 3-nerved. Upper petals spathulate to oblong, hairy inside in basal half; keel auriculate, with 2 little-incised appendages. Filaments free for ⅓, the staminal tube adaxially split for ¼ into two bundles of 4 filaments. Ovary asymmetrically quadrangular, patently hairy; style straight in basal half, curved in upper half, apically obliquely 2-fid, the upper part sterile, the stigmatic lobe situated at inner side. Capsule much shorter but somewhat wider than the alae, c. 2-2.5 mm long, asymmetrically quadrangular, deeply notched apically, narrowly winged, set with stiff, long hairs. Seeds ovoid, at micropylar side with an unequally 3-lobed aril, black, densely set with rather long appressed hairs.
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Annual herb, erect with spreading or ascending branches, up to 40 cm high; indumentum of mostly curved and straight hairs. Stems, leaves and alae often tinged maroon. Leaves linear to narrowly oblong or oblanceolate, 4–33 mm long, 1–5 mm wide; apex mostly acute or acuminate, rarely obtuse, mucro 0.3–0.4 mm long; petiole 0–1 mm long. Inflorescence supra-axillary or axillary, occasionally leaf-opposed, rarely terminal, a raceme to 200 mm long, although often much shorter c. 25 mm long, exceeding the leaves or shorter than leaves. Pedicel to 1 mm long. Alae antrorse to perpendicular in fruit (position), herbaceous, narrowly elliptic to oblanceolate, dimidiate or falcate, 4.0–7.8 mm long, 1.0–2.2 mm wide, with straight hairs present and occasionally curved hairs also. Corolla purple; floral appendages fimbriate; upper petal claw c. 0.7 mm wide. Stamens terminate at stigma, monadelphous; staminal flap
Usually found in eucalypt woodlands on rocky hillslopes or in Melaleuca shrublands, sedgelands or herbfields, often associated with sandy soils.
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Sandy savannah in hilly country, a few metres above sea-level.
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