Pale green, glaucous, small annual or shrub, up to 60 cm tall, erect to ascending. Leaves opposite, usually densely hairy in the axils, short, oblong, fleshy thick, semi-terete, sessile, semi-amplexicaul, 6-9 (-11) x 2-3 mm, obtuse with a deciduous seta or bristle at the apex. Flowers axillary, crowded above, axils woolly; floral leaves oblong or rounded; bracts minute, linear, membranous ciliate. Flowers 3-7 in axillary glomerules above. Fruiting perianth c. 8 mm in diam., including wings; wings (-3) 5, obovate to orbicular-cordate, hyaline; stigma obscurely 2-lobed.

Fl. Per.: July-August.

Type: In Aegypto, Persia.

Distribution: Egypt, Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan and N.W. India.

Sometimes confused with Seidlitzia sp. but flowers 3-7 in axillary glomerules, perianth c. 8 mm in diam. in fruit and leaves bristle-tipped.