Annual with slender taproot, usually glabrous. Stems procumbent to erect, sometimes densely tufted, with or without basal rosette leaves, 2–10 cm long. Leaves rather fleshy, linear, obtuse or acute, often minutely mucronate, rarely ciliate, 3–15 mm long, 0.5–1 mm wide. Flowers 4-merous; pedicels more or less erect, glabrous, 2–20 mm long; calyx glabrous, sepals ovate, hooded, obtuse, often with purplish margins, suberect in fruit, 2–3 mm long; petals minute or absent; stamens 4; styles 4. Capsule ovoid, more or less equalling sepals, c. 2.5 mm long; seeds brown, oblique-reniform, more or less grooved dorsally, tuberculate, 0.3–0.5 mm diam. Flowers Sep.–Nov.