Slender erect annual 5-8 cm tall, usually with erect-spreading branches from below. Basal leaves 5-10 x 4-6 mm, oblong to oblanceolate; upper leaves lanceolate, less than 10 mm long; both surfaces covered with stiff hairs. Racemes in fruit compact, dense. Calyx lobes 1-2 mm long, densely hairy with stiff and unequal hairs often hooked and pale- yellowish in colour; in fruit 7-8 mm long, erect with tips incurred, midrib prominent at base. Nutlets 2-2.5 mm long, ovoid, tuberculate; tubercles with stellate-like apex. Style c. 1 mm long.

Fl. Per.: April-May.

Type: Pakistan: Gurghina, Upper Belochistan, Stocks 978 (K).

Distribution: Iran, Afghanistan, Soviet C. Asia, Pakistan, east ward to Ladak.

Characterized by the enlarged erect calyx lobes. Bunge described the calyx of this species as bigibbous at the base, which I have not seen in our specimens. Found in stony gravelly places from 1600–2400 m.