Annual herbs to 50 cm high with glandular hairs. Stems erect, sometimes branched above. Leaves oblanceolate or oblong, mostly 2.5–8 cm long, 0.5–2 cm wide; base cuneate or attenuate; margins sinuate-dentate. Sepals purplish, 4–5 mm long; petals purple, 8–10(–12) mm long, obtuse at apex; filaments 4–6(–7) mm long. Fruit curved upwards near apex, 3–4 cm long (including beak); valves corky, constricted between seeds, segments eventually breaking off in pairs (not splitting along the septum); seeds brown, oblong, 1–1.5 mm long. Flowers Sep.–Nov.
MuM. Native to China and Europe, first recorded near Boort in 1941, but plants only beginning to spreading more recently. It is now regarded as a weed of cereal crops in the eastern Mallee region, with plants also beginning to spread along disturbed roadsides in that area.
