Slender, straggling to sublianoid; stems up to 3 dm. or more long, slightly scabrid on angles or nearly glab., hairs retrorse; branches and branchlets similar, very slender. Lvs and stipules similar, forming rather distant whorls of 4, on flat retrorsely hairly petioles c. 1 mm. long. Lamina patent, linear- to narrowly oblong-lanceolate to narrow-oblanceolate (all forms may be on single plant), 6-10-15-(20) × 2-4 mm.; acuminate, sts awned, sts apiculate, gradually narrowed to base; margins, and midrib below, scabridulous. Fls c. 2 mm. diam., in (1)-3-4-fld axillary cymes. Peduncles slender, c. 15 mm. long, decurved in fr.; pedicels filiform, c. 4 mm. long. Calyx minute; corolla white, tube minute. Fr. of 2 globose cocci 1-1·5 mm. diam., very dark brown, with sparse appressed hairs to glab

2n = 44

Perennial herb; stems slender, straggling or scrambling, angled, glabrous or with retrorse hairs, c. 10-70 cm long. Lvs and stipules in distant whorls of 4; petioles 0.5-3 mm long; lamina 2-10-(20) × 0.8-3-(4) mm, usually narrowly elliptic, oblanceolate to spathulate; margins and midrib ciliolate; apex usually mucronate or cuspidate. Fls (1)-3-4 in terminal or axillary cymes; peduncles and pedicels ± deflexed at fruiting, filiform; peduncles (1)-3-20-(30) mm long; pedicels 1-11-(15) mm long; bracts much < lvs and stipules except at base of infl. Corolla 2-3 mm diam., white; lobes ovate-oblong or elliptic-oblong, acute to mucronate. Mericarps 1-1.5 mm diam., globose, ± finely rugulose, glabrous or sparsely clothed in appressed hairs.