Annual, armed, erect,herb, up to 50-70 cm high, leaf axil with 5-spines, stem terete or angular, glabrous; leaves ovate, rhomboid or oblong, mucronate at apex, caneate or attenuate at base, glabrous; petioles equalling or sometimes longer than lamina; flowers in axillary clusters or in long dense or lax terminal, spikes; lower clusters and lower part of spikes bearing only female flowers, upper part of spikes with male flowers; bracts deltoid-ovate, awned, setaceous, equalling or exceeding the sepals; perianth lobes 5, acute, bristles pointed, sepaloid those of male flowers acute, longer than female, stamens 5, filaments almost equalling the perianth, anthers 2-celled; ovary 1, erect, ovoid; urticles ovoid, thickened at the top, indehiscent or circumsciss, up to middle, rugose, compressed, with 3-fid apex, nearly equalling the sepals; seeds brown, orbicular, discoid, compressed, shining, borders not thickened.