An erect or suberect, 30-60 cm tall, annual herb. Stem and branches glabrous. Leaves 3-4-costate, oblong-lanceolate or linear-lanceolate or somewhat elliptic-obovate, 1.5-9 cm long, 0.6-2.2 cm broad, glabrous except the sparsely hairy veins, crenate-serrate, basal serratures prolonged into filiform spreading appendages or not, acute; petiole 5-12 mm long, hairy; stipules setaceous, 2-3 mm long. Cyme 1-3(-4)-flowered, antiphyllous, short peduncled. Flowers yellow, c. 1 cm across, subsessile; bracts subulate, 3-4 mm long. Sepals linear-oblong, 4-5 mm long, c. 2 mm broad, apiculate. Petals oblong, 3-4 mm long, c. 2 mm broad, obtuse. Stamens 10-15, filaments 4-5 mm long. Carpels 3; ovary cylindric, sulcate, 3-loculed, hairy; style small, stigma sparsely papillate. Capsules 1-3 together, erect, cylindrical, 1.5-4 cm long, c. 2 mm in diameter, not ribbed, glabrous, terminated by 3 spreading bifid tips, 3-loculed, locules aseptate. Seeds angular, obliquely truncate at both ends, black.

Fl. Per.: July-November.

Type: Described from India.

Distribution: Widespread in tropical and subtropical countries of Africa, Asia and in North Australia.

Common throughout Pakistan in cultivated fields and wastelands on sandy alluvial moist soils, particularly after rains.

The young leaves and shoots are used as pot herb in India, Pakistan, tropical Africa and are sometimes dried for this purpose to be used in soup. It is commonly eaten by goats and camels. The stem yields a good fibre which is used in north Nigeria and elsewhere for fishing lines.