Root apparently annual, short, with longer spreading straw-coloured lateral ones; stem slender, branched in the upper half or upper two-thirds, very sparingly leafy, with several longitudinal fairly conspicuous ribs, glabrous; branches erect, slender; leaves slender, linear, acute, 1/3-1/2 in. long, blackish when dry, glabrous; flowers arranged in short racemose 1-flowered cymules; cymes shortly stalked, with 1 or 2 small leaves and about 3 bracts around the flower; bracts linear, about as long as the flower; bracteoles acute, half the length of the flower; perianth 3/4 lin. long; segments elliptic-lanceolate, subacute, 1/2-3/4 lin. long, with an apical beard and hairy margins; anthers 1/8 lin. long, exserted, at the base of the segments or almost in the tube; stigma subsessile; fruits ovoid, 2 lin. long, reddish-glaucous, rather prominently 10-ribbed and reticulate.
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