Plant parasitic on herbs and shrubs, forming tangled masses. Stems yellowish green, up to 3 m. or more long; branches c. 3 mm. diam.; branchlets faintly pubescent at tips; scales few, minute, ovate, acute. Spikes simple or branched, up to 5 cm. long; fls sessile, ± 3 mm. diam.; per. glab., 3 outer segs minute. Fr, globose, ± 3 mm. diam., enclosed in succulent, enlarged, glabrate, ribbed per. tube.

n = 12 bivalents

2n = 24

Stems to c. 3 mm diam., often forming dense masses, usually yellowish green, minutely puberulent when young, becoming glabrous. Scale lvs mostly 1-2 mm long, ovate, ± ciliate. Spikes mostly simple, sometimes branched, 2-10 cm long, glabrous or nearly so; fls distant, especially lowermost, subsessile or pedicels very short. Bracts 1-1.5 mm long, ovate. Outer perianth similar to bracts; inner segments 2-2.5 mm long, elliptic-oblong. Stamens included; outermost filaments broadly winged. Style < stamens. Fr. 4-5.5 mm diam., globose, glabrate or puberulent.