An erect, annual herb, marshy, or aquatic plant, at times seen on drier land, to 3 m high, sometimes persisting and becoming woody at the base. Stems nearly glabrous, green but may have reddish or purplish coloration, marked with striations, usually branched above, may appear 3- or 4-angled, young growth and inflorescence minutely pubescent. Leaves lanceolate to linear lanceolate, narrowly cuneate at base, acute to acuminate at tip, may be white-green, up to 10 cm long, 1 to 3 cm wide, petiole short, midrib may be white-green, margin may be serrulate, glabrous or with few short hairs at base of leaf; flowers small, axillary, solitary, sessile; calyx a tube surrounding the inferior ovary, forming at the top 4 lanceolate, acuminate sepals, 2 to 4 mm long, pubescent; petals 4, yellow or white fading to orange-yellow, ovate to elliptic, a little larger than sepals; style and stigma simple, style pale greenish-yellow, stigma globose, stamens 8, in this species filaments of the epipetalous stamens are 0.5 to 1 mm long, those of the episepalous being 1 to 2 mm long. Fruit a capsule, cylindrical, 4-celled, up to 3 cm long, l to 0.2 mm wide, pubescent, subsessile, somewhat enlarged at top. Seeds of two types: those of the upper part of capsule numerous, several rows per locule, ovoid, about 0.5 mm long, free, more pale brown than lower seeds; in lower capsule 1 row per locule, about 0.75 mm long, brown, each imbedded in a corky disc.

Antifungal (decoction of roots)

Pacific Island Ecosystems at Risk (PIER)
PROSEA (Plant Resources of South-East Asia) Foundation
Plants Used In Traditional Medicine In The Klias Peninsula

A cold infusion of the roots is drunk for syphilis and used for poulticing pimples, boils and other infections. The plant is taken for diarrhoea and dysentery, enteritis and sprue.