Herbs annual, erect, 10-20 cm tall. Stem slender, simple or few branched, longitudinally angular and sulcate, glabrous. Leaves sessile; leaf blade elliptic or ovate-lanceolate, 4-8 × 1-2.5 mm, membranous to thinly papery, glabrous, basally 3-veined, base subrounded, margin entire, rarely apex 1-or 2-ciliate, apex acute or acuminate. Spike 4-10 cm; bracts persistent at anthesis, linear, ca. 1 mm. Flowers sessile, small, ca. 2.5 mm. Sepals 5, persistent, connate at base, green, lanceolate-ovate, nearly equal, ca. 1.2 mm, apex acuminate, sparsely ciliate. Petals connate in lower 1/2, red-purple, 2-2.5 mm; keel longer than lateral petals. Filaments ca. 1.5 mm, united forming an open sheath, inside of sheath arachnoid, lower 1/2 of sheath adnate with petals. Ovary obcordate, ca. 0.75 mm in diam., margin filiform denticulate; style ca. 2 mm, median part thickened, cylindric; stigma capitate. Capsule reniform, ca. 2 mm in diam., apex retuse, margin 2-seriate filiform denticulate, carpel smooth, without reticulate striae, sometimes minutely hairy. Seeds 2, black, shiny, ovoid, ca. 1 mm in diam. Fl. Jul-Aug, fr. Aug-Sep.
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Herb up to 25 cm, branched or unbranched. Stem glabrous to sparingly ciliate, ribbed, c. 0.5 mm wide, the wings up to 0.5 mm wide. Leaves elliptic or ovate to oblong or ovate-lanceolate, 3-9 by 1-5 mm, truncate to attenuate at base, acutish and mucronate at apex, the margin glabrous to densely long-ciliate, usually 3-nerved; petiole up to 0.5 mm or in the basal leaves up to c. 1 mm. Flowers 1.5—2 mm long, pink to purple. Sepals unequal, the lower ones distinctly larger than the other sepals, 1-1.5 mm long. Keel not papillose. Anthers 4, c. 0.15 mm long. Capsule 0.8-1 by 1.5-2 mm, walls of cells smooth, sometimes sparsely minutely hairy, not veined; spines at margin up to 0.5 mm long.
Sunny or slightly shaded open places in grasslands or sometimes in deciduous forest, Melaleuca forest, teak forest, sand dunes, swamps; usually on wet fine quartz sand or on clay; locally rather common, 0-1250 m.
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