Annual, branches prostrate or ascending, glabrous or pubescent. Leaf bifoliolate, petiole 6.0-20 mm long, leaflets 0.7-3.0 cm long, 3.5-10 mm broad, sessile, lanceolate, linear-lanceolate or linear, glandular punctate below, glabrous. Inflorescence a 3-12-flowered raceme, 2.5-10 cm long. Bracts foliaceous, up to 1.3 cm long, black dotted, completely enclosing the flower. Calyx 3.5-4 mm long, 2 upper teeth obtuse, united, ciliate above, 2 lateral teeth smaller, the lowest longest, acute, ciliate. Corolla 7-8 mm long. Fruit 1-6 jointed, joints c. 2.5 mm long, indehiscent, echinate.

Fl.Per.: August-September.

Type: Circa Koepang, 1836, Spanoghe (untraceable).

Neotype: Cochinchina, Cai-cong, Thorel 1426 (US). For further details reference may be made to Mohlenbrock (l.c.).

Distribution: Pakistan, Kashmir, India (Punjab, Kumaon, Madras, Bombay, Madhya Pradesh), Nepal, Burma, Australia (Northern Territory), Celebes, China, Malaya, New Guinea, Philippines, Thailand.

This taxon has generally been referred to as Zornia diphylla (L.) Pers. (Baker in Hook.f.,Fl.Brit.Ind.2:147.1876; Cooke l.c.) but as shown by Mohlenbrock (l.c.) Zornia diphylla (L.) Pers. is confined to Ceylon and S. India and our plant should correctly be known as Zornia gibbosa Span.

Mohlenbrock (l.c.) has listed Pondichery, under Cochinchina. This is obviously an oversight for Pondichery is a well known S. Indian locality.