Annual, dwarf shrub, 0.25-0.40 m high, erect or decumbent, sometimes thinly woody below, glabrous, appearing leafless, consisting of many superimposed, ± tubular segments that are green to reddish and succulent, and ultimately shrivel, each segment forming a little cup at apex, with 2 short teeth, embracing base of next higher segment; branches opposite, articulated. Leaves much reduced, opposite, consisting of small, connate scales. Inflorescences short or long, terminal and lateral, fleshy, cylindrical, persistent spikes breaking up irregularly. Flowers minute, bisexual or occasionally a few unisexual, usually in clusters of 3, ± connate, a pair of clusters to each fertile segment, clusters on opposite sides and immersed in hollows at articulations of branches. Perianth angular, minutely 3-or 4-lobed, fleshy, opening in middle of a truncate, flattened, lateral shield, lobes hard and spongy in fruit, persistent. Stamens 1 or 2 per flower; thecae exserted. Ovary ovoid, ovule subsessile; style lacerated at apex. Flowering time Dec.-June. Fruit an utricle, ovoid or oblong in outline, enclosed in spongy perianth; pericarp membranous. Seed erect, small, compressed, ± oblong; testa thin membranous, minutely hairy.
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Scarcely woody shrublet, erect rarely decumbent, up to 40 cm high; erect main branches up to 10 mm in diameter at the base, often twisted; secondary branches spreading and longer than the central stem. Barren segments cylindrical, faintly keeled or not keeled at the leaf apex, with lateral ridge, 5-15 mm long 2-3 mm in diameter, glaucous or green fading to deep bluish-red, then often shiny; leaf apex of young leaves slightly spreading when dried. Sclereids in the palisade tissue spirally thickened. Spikes terminal and lateral, (5-)10-30(-120) mm long, tapering when flowering, cylindrical when fruiting. Cymules 3-flowered; central flower acute or nearly so at its posterior apex; flowers protandrous. Perianth tube with three crenate segments, truncate with lateral shield. Anthers 2, 0-5-1 mm long. Stigmas tufted. Seeds compressed, oblong, 1-2 mm long, brown, with membranous testa covered with long seed hairs coiled at the apex; endosperm absent; embryo conduplicate.
Jointed, red, fleshy annual to 40 cm, with opposed branching. Leaves reduced to a small membranous collar. Flowers minute, 3 in axillary cymes, hidden by the leaves.
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