Annual, erect, very glabrous, shallow-rooted herb; stem slender, angular, much branched from the base; leaves alternate, distichous, often overlapping, simple, appear to be compound, membranous, oblong, obtuse, nerves few, obscure, pale green, glaucous beneath; petioles very short; stipules subulate; flowers very small, in leaf axils, 1-2 together; male flowers almost sessile, perianth white, segments usually 5 or 6, orbicular; stamens 3, sessile on a short column; disk glands very minute; female flowers soliatary, shortly pedicelled, perianth lobes narrowly obovate-oblong, green with broad scarious margins, not enlarged in fruit; ovary 6-lobed; styles very short, free, bifid at the apex; disk glands annular; capsules very small, depressed-globose, hardly lobed, smooth, thinly crustaceous; seeds slightly trigonous, pale brown, with equal, parallel, longitudinal ribs.