Small, prostrate, much branched, annual herb, more or less hispidly pubescent with pale coppery tinge; stem prostrate, closely flattened on the ground; 20-30 cm long, divaricately branched, slender, cylindric; leaves shortly petiolate, small, opposite, obliquely oblong, obtuse, crenulate, glabrous or pubescent beneath; stipules elongate, fimbriate with a long point; involucres subsolitary, very minute, solitary or 2-3 together in the axils, turbinate, pubescent; very shortly stalked, lobes short, ciliate, glands very minute stipitate, with minute limbs or none; bract minute; bracteoles present; male flowers naked, pedicellate; stamens without floral envelope; female flowers naked; ovary 3-carpellary, exserted on a long pedicel in the centre of the involucres, styles 3, stigma 2-lobed; capsule broad, erect, triangular or ovoid, smooth, shortly stipitate, pubescent; seeds 5-6, shallow, transversely furrowed, ovoid-tetragonal, red, caruncle absent.