An annual, erect, much-branched, glandulous herb, up to 50 cm tall. Leaves lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, 5—20 mm x 1—4 mm, apex acute, lower leaves in pseudo-whorls; raceme axillary or terminal, 5—12 cm long, bracts and bracteoles early caducous. Flowers 1.5—2 mm long, sepals lanceolate, obtuse, wings weakly 3-veined, upper petals lanceolate, whitish, often purple-tinged, keel not auriculate, with 2 bundles of about 6 appendages, filaments connate except for the uppermost part, ovary orbicular, style straight, subapically curved and widened in an asymmetrical, wide cup, upper side with a hair tuft, inner side with a stigmatic lobe. Capsule a little longer than the wings, elliptical, 2 mm long, notched, not winged. Seed oblong, micropilar side with a deeply 2-fid aril, black, hairy.

PROSEA (Plant Resources of South-East Asia) Foundation

A sweetened infusion of the aerial parts is a remedy for gonorrhoea and lumbago, and the pulverized leaves may be applied to wounds.