Annual or short-lived perennial to 20 cm high. Branches sparsely and shortly pilose when young, otherwise glabrous. Leaves sparsely pilose when young, soon glabrous, slender, semiterete, 5–10 mm long. Flowers solitary. Perianth glabrous except ciliate margin to lobes. Stamens 5. Fruiting perianth glabrous, glossy; tube oblong, c. 2 mm high and wide, ribbed, slightly ascending, deeply hollowed and expanded at base forming a flattened circular attachment, crenulate on margin, to 5 mm diam.; limb erect, forming a ciliate ridge c. 1 mm high; spines 2, lateral, divergent, 1–7 mm long (a pair of very short radicular spines sometimes present adjacent to one of the lateral spines), the radicular tubercle decurrent as a prominent rib. Seed and radicle erect.
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