Herbs, slender, delicate. Stems simple or more commonly branched throughout, mainly 0.7-3.5 dm, branches terete; herbage scurfy. Leaves: blade concolorous, linear to narrowly lanceolate, mainly 4-25 × 1-3 mm. Flowers very small, both sexes in the same sessile, axillary clusters. Staminate flowers: sepals 5. Fruiting bracteoles sessile, ovate to cuneate in outline, 1.5-2.7 × 1.1-2.1 mm, apex truncate to attenuate, faces smooth or tuberculate. Seeds brown, 1-2 mm.