A perennial or annual herb, (3-)5-72 cm tall, with erect or decumbent stems, branching strictly from the base or unbranched, not rooting. Leaves usually lanceolate to linear or oblong, 4-25 mm x 1-8 mm, with 1-3 basal veins, without reticulate venation, laminar glands pale, sessile. Inflorescence lax, 1-30-flowered; flowers (5-)6-12(-15) mm in diameter, sepals 2.8-7.5(-9) mm x 0.8-2 mm, free, 3-5 veined, often with prominent midrib, laminar glands pale, petals 5-10 mm x 2-5 mm, persistent, pale yellow to orange, without glands, stamens 30-50, ovary 1-celled, placentas 3, parietal, styles divergent. Fruit narrowly ovoid to cylindrical. Seeds minute, cylindrical, longitudinally ribbed with striae, not carinate.

PROSEA (Plant Resources of South-East Asia) Foundation

The leaves are chewed with traditional ash salt to treat malarial fever.