Herbs, annual, up to 90 cm tall, branched, erect, glabrous or sparsely glandu¬lar, distantly leaved. Leaves 3-foliolate, lower shortly petiolate, upper subsessile; leaflets broadly obovate or suborbicular, up to 15 mm long, 10 mm broad, middle ones larger. Inflorescence usually dense, capitate, 6-12-flowered, ebracteate, somewhat elongated in fruit. Flowers about 5 mm across, white or pinkish; pedicels 3-5 (-8) mm long. Sepals 3-4 mm long, linear, acute, more or less glandular outside. Petals 5-7 mm long, linear-oblong. Stamens 6, about 10 mm long. Capsules linear, 25-40 mm long, 1.5 mm broad, torulose, straight and horizontally spreading, with 3-5 mm long style, sparsely glandular; stipe 2-3 mm long in fruit; seeds many, about 1-1.5 mm in diam., minutely granulate, brown, glabrous.

Type: Afghanistan, Herat, Bunge (G, K).

The type race seems to be confined to Afghanistan and Iran and is known from a few gatherings only. More gatherings are needed to know the range of variations in this species. However, a solitary inadequate gathering of this species from W. Pakistan (Baluchistan) appears to be quite distinct from the type race in certain characters and is better placed in a new subsp. pakistanica (described below) till more information is gathered about this species.