Plants annual, rarely biennial [perennial], glabrous or nearly so, with fusiform vertical root. Stems branched from base or near base, occasionally simple, slender, 5-50 cm. Leaves: ocrea deciduous or partially persistent; blade spatulate, lanceolate, or ovate-lanceolate, 1-5(-8) × (0.5-)1-2.5 cm, base cuneate, rarely rounded, margins normally entire, flat, apex obtuse. Inflorescences terminal, simple, racemose, occupying most of stem, interrupted, linear. Pedicels usually distinctly heteromorphic (much thickened distally), 4-7(-10) mm; others less than 4 mm. Flowers 2-3(-4) in lax clusters (reduced whorls); inner tepals variable, often heteromorphic, triangular, narrowly triangular, ligulate, or ovate-oblong, (1.5-)2-4(-5) × (0.5-)1-3 mm (excluding teeth), base truncate, margins usually dentate, sometimes entire, apex obtuse or acute, usually not hooked, teeth 2-4(-8), at each side of margins, slender, straight or hooked, 0.3-1 mm; tubercles absent, or 3, usually represented by minute swellings barely recognizable as tubercles. Achenes brown to dark brown, 1.3-2.3 × 0.7-1.4 mm. 2n = 16.
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A low to medium herb. It grows 5-20 cm high. It grows each year from seed. There can be a few wiry stems. The leaves are very small and sword shaped. The flowers are small and greenish. The fruit are on stalks which curve backwards.
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