Annual saprophytic herb, 3–40 cm high. Stem slender, unbranched or branched at inflorescence. Leaves sessile, in 6–9 distant pairs, reduced, scale-like, triangular, lanceolate or linear-lanceolate, 2–4 mm long, 0.5–1 mm wide, acute to acuminate. Inflorescences few-flowered, lax, dichasially branched cymes; pedicels 13–20(–35) mm long, slender. Flowers 5-merous, pale yellow, yellow or golden yellow. Calyx lobes free to the base, lanceolate, 5.5–7 mm long, 1–2 mm wide, acute; wing narrow. Corolla tube cylindrical, 4–7.4 mm long, narrowed into the ovary, enlarged at point of filament insertion; lobes elliptic, 5–8.5 mm long, 2.5–4 mm wide, subobtuse. Stamens inserted in the sinuses of corolla lobes; filaments 1.5–2.9 mm long; anthers ellipsoid, 0.7–1.3 mm long, without glands. Ovary ovoid or ellipsoid, 3–6.4 mm long; style 2.5–4.1 mm long, with secondary swelling just above its base, the thickening provided with scale-like outgrowths; stigma globose, ellipsoid to oblong, bilobed, 0.6–1.3 mm. Capsule oblong to ellipsoid. Seed ± 0.2 mm in diameter, surface reticulate-pitted.