Annual up to 24 cm tall. Stem and branches slender, glabrous. Leaves cauline and ramal, pseudo-verticillate, 1.2-4.0 cm long, 1.5 mm broad, elliptic lanceolate. Sepals 1.5-2 mm long, elliptic ovate. Stamens 5, antisepalous, c. 1.2 mm long; filaments dilated at the base, anthers less than 1 mm long, basifixed, dehiscing longitudinally. Ovary sub-globose, c. 1.5 mm broad, Fruit c. 9 mm broad, membranous. Seed less than 1 mm long, granulate, dark brown.

Fl Per.: September-October.

Type: Described from Ceylon.

Distribution: Malayan Peninsula, Fiji, Ceylon, China, Japan, India and W. Pakistan.

Fairly common; ascends to c. 2300 m. alt.s.m. in the Himalayas. Medicinal and the leaves are used as a pot herb.