Erect, much branched annual herb up to 30 cm, usually turning a characteristic dark bluish-green when dry; young branches rather flexuous. Stems densely and shortly glandular-viscid, stalked glands 0.3-0.5 mm. Leaves crowded, linear to narrowly linear, 10-30 x 0.3-3.5 mm, somewhat reflexed especially late in season, flat or occasionally inrolled, very graduallly attenuate at base into indistinct, glandular petiole up to 10 mm c. 1/5 x lamina. Flowers appearing much less dense than in A. glandulosa. Pedicels capillary, 9-12 mm in flower, elongated in fruit and up to 18 mm, glandular; flowers and capsules usually reaching beyond middle and sometimes exceeding subtending leaf. Bracteoles 2, in upper 2/3-3/4 of pedicel or just below flower. Calyx 4 mm in flower, to 5.5 mm in fruit, segments linear to narrowly oblong, acute, tips recurved in fruit. Corolla 9-10 mm, c. 2.5 x calyx; tube white, shortly puberulent; lobes deep violet, glabrous. Capsule ovoid, 8 x 4 mm, c. 2 x calyx, glandular. Seeds 0.5 mm, light pinkish-brown, with c. 10 longitudinal ribs and many finer transverse striae.
Erect herb, up to 300 mm tall. Leaves alternate, linear. Corolla comparatively broad with wide, open throat. Fertile stamens 2. Capsule 8-9 mm long, ovoid or oblong, somewhat acutely pointed at apex. Flowers purplish.
