Annual with taproot and numerous adventitious roots. Leaves rosetted, narrow-elliptic, 4–10 cm long, 8–25 mm wide, obtuse, pubescent, 3–5-veined, margins usually obscurely and irregularly toothed; petiole indistinct. Spike cylindric, mostly 5–10 cm long, somewhat loose; peduncles 8–30 cm long, pubescent; bracts ovate to elliptic, 1.5–2 mm long, obtuse, margins ciliate, keel pubescent. Sepals elliptic, 1.8–2 mm long, sub-equal; corolla-tube 1.5–2 mm long, lobes 0.6–1.8 mm long, spreading or reflexed; anthers 0.3–0.6 mm long, exserted. Capsule ovoid, 3–3.4 mm long, with a truncate, obscurely 4-lobed cylindric beak at apex; seeds 1–5, brownish, lower 4 seeds elliptic, 1.2–1.8 mm long, apical seed smaller, irregular, contained in beak. Flowers Aug.–Nov.
LoM, MuM, Wim, VRiv, MSB, RobP, MuF, NIS. Also WA, SA, Qld, NSW (native and naturalised),. In Victoria confined to the north and north-west, where locally not uncommon on seasonally wet soils, mostly in grassland or woodland.
