Erect perennial herb 30–60 cm tall; rootstock a taproot; stems smooth or weakly 4-ribbed, glabrous. Leaves more or less opposite below, alternate above, linear to terete, 15–45 mm long, submucronate, entire or sometimes with small sparse lobes or tubercular teeth, glabrous to sparsely scabrous, sessile; bracts linear-lanceolate, 4.5–6 mm long, entire, mucronate, glabrous or scabrous, green; bracteoles lanceolate, 0.5–0.8 mm long, entire, brown. Inflorescence 5–7-flowered; pedicels to 0.2 mm long; sepals 4, green, narrow-triangular, 0.6–0.9 mm long; petals 4, red, 2–2.7 mm long; stamens 8; ovary 4-celled, ovoid to hemispherical, 0.3–0.5 mm long, 8-ribbed to 8-angled, glabrous, styles 4. Fruit ovoid, globose or nearly obpyriform, 3–7 per axil, 1.2–1.5 mm long, 1–1.4 mm diam., 8-ribbed, ribs between sepals sometimes wing-like, glabrous. Flowers Nov.–Feb.
LoM, Wim, GleP, Brid, VVP. Also SA, Tas. In Victoria apparently confined to the west between Little Desert and Portland where it grows in wet habitats.
