Slender erect annuals, simple or sparsely branched, 6-60 cm high; stems glabrous. Leaves alternate, linear or linear-lanceolate, sometimes witif a whorl of 3 reduced narrow-obovate leaves at base of stem, acute or cuspidate apically, acute or attenuate basally, 1-nerved, the margin slightly revolute, glabrous, punc-tate, 4-28 mm long, 0.5-3 mm wide, subsessile. Racemes depressed-subglobose or globose, densely flowered, 6-12 mm long, 6-18 mm wide, the axis to 3.5 cm long, the peduncle to 12 cm long; bracts lance-ovate, subulate, the margins glandular-ciliate, usually gland-dotted on back, 0.8-1.2 mm long. Flowers vary-ing from white to deep purple, the pedicels 1.5-3 mm long; largest sepal ovate or elliptic, cuspidate, 5-nerved, 1.7-2.2 mm long, the smaller 2 ovate, occasion-ally elliptic, cuspidate, gland-dotted basally, 1.6-1.9 mm long; wings elliptic, obong or ovate-oblong, cuspidate apically, usually cuneate-rounded basally, 3-nerved, bearing a few glands on back, 4.7-5.8 mm long, 1.5-2 mm wide; upper petals suboblong to nearly obovate, obtuse, 3.6-5.3 mm long; keel 3-4.3 mm long, gland-dotted apically and basally, the crest lobed, the lobes 0.6-1 mm long, usually 6, rarely 8, single or irregularly forked; staminal tube glabrous inside, the filaments very short; ovary oblong, 1-1.4 mm long, 0.7-0.9 mm wide, the style slender, straight, 1.8-2.2 mm long, developed distally into a navicular cavity, the apical end of which has a tuft of hairs, the inner end a globose, papillose stigma supported on a minute stalk. Capsules ovoid-oblong, bearing a double line of glands along the septum, 2.8-4 mm long, 1.4-2.2 mm wide; seeds (Fig. lh) conic, sericeous, comose basally, 1.8-2.5 mm long (including the coma); aril minute or absent.
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