E-Flora BC: Electronic Atlas of the Flora of British Columbia

General:
Annual herb from a fibrous root; stems decumbent to erect, solitary, simple to freely branched, 5-50 cm tall/long, glabrous, fleshy, often reddish with age.

Leaves:
Stem leaves reduced to opposite, scalelike, fused bracts; lower scales slightly spreading, obtuse to rounded.

Flowers:
Inflorescence of fleshy spikes, the flowers sunken in depressions of the joints just above the axils and opposite the fused bracts, the joints of the spike 2.5-4 (rarely 2) mm long and half as thick as the spikes; flowers in groups of 3, central flowers in each cluster much exceeding the lateral ones; spikes 2-5 cm long.

Fruits:
Thin, papery-walled, membranous bladders enclosed by spongy flower scales, egg- to diamond-shaped; seeds 1 per bladder.