Herbs annual, 10-20 cm tall. Root black-brown, terete. Stem erect, mostly branched from base; branches prostrate or ascending, yellow-white, terete, somewhat ribbed above, glabrous. Leaves subsessile, fleshy, base broadly cuneate, apex rounded; leaves on stem and main branches linear, semiterete, to 1.5 cm × 2 mm; leaves on lateral branches narrowly ovate to obovate, slightly compressed, 3-4 × 2-3 mm. Glomerules borne in leaf axils and on axillary, dwarf, usually bifurcate, leafless branchlets, usually 2-5-flowered. Flowers bisexual and female. Perianth depressed, 5-parted; segments subtriangular, base extended into an irregular, transverse wing in fruit. Stamens 1 or 2 developed; filaments not exserted, flattened filiform; anthers ovate-oblong, ca. 0.3 mm. Style obscure; stigmas 2, divaricate, minute. Seed horizontal, depressed globose or lenticular, 0.8-1.2 mm in diam.; testa red-brown to black, sublustrous, membranous or thinly leathery, obscurely reticular lineate. Fl. and fr. Aug-Oct.
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