A decumbent-ascending, suberect or erect sparingly puberulous or pubescent annual herb up to 60 cm; hairs small, mostly unicellular, white. Petioles 1-2 mm long. Leaf-blades elliptic-oblong, (0.5-) 1-3 x (03-) 0.5-1.5 cm, obtuse, obliquely rounded at the base, senulale except at the base on the inner margin, subtriplinerved, green above, paler beneath. Stipules interpetiolar, triangular, often fimbriate or laciniate, 1.5 mm long. Cyathia aggregated together into loose clusters terminating short axillary shoots; cyathial glands purplish, with white or pale pink orbicular petaloid appendages. Fruits trigonous, 1.5 x 2 mm, smooth, sparingly pubescent or glabrous. Seeds 1 x 0.8 mm, ovoid, roundly-quadrangular, shallowly rugulose to almost smooth, grey, ecarunculate.

Fl. & Fr. Per.: Feb.-May (plains), June-Ian. (foothills and mountains).

Holotype: East Indies, Sonnerat s.n. (P-LA!).

Distribution: Africa, Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, India, China. On clayey, sandy or slightly saline soils, dry or waterlogged, in open grassland or shady Poplar forest, on river-banks, by roadsides, in cultivated fields and in abandoned cultivations; near sea-level to 5000'/1524 m.