Erect, annual herb, 0.05-0.20 m high; simple or branched. Leaves 3-15 x 3-15 mm, ovate to ovate-orbicular. Flowers in many-flowered, dense, head-like cymes; flowers subsessile, bracteate. Caly x: segments 4, erose or erose-dentate in upper part, keeled below or with small, apical wing. Corolla white; tube 3.5-4.0 mm long, as long or longer than lobes. Stamens inserted in corolla sinuses; anthers with apical glands. Style without swelling, sometimes thickened below stigma; stigma clavate or capitate-clavate, bilobed. Fruit a capsule.
Like S. ambigua but flowers white, smaller, petals 1.0-2.5 mm long and style without a swelling.