Perennial herbaceous up to 1 m. Suborbicular leaves, ovate or oval, 2 to 5 cm, apex obtuse to round and sometimes acute, base rounded; they are paler on the underside. Fascicles of flowers arranged in a long panicle, minute flowers, with the calyx from 1.5 to 2 mm and the blade from 0.8 to 0.9 mm in heads forming peaks; purplish-red perianth. Obovoid fruit, 2.5 to 3 mm, 5-angular.

Herbaceous biennial or annual, acaulescent, with red-purple succulent root. Ovate to ovate-oblong leaves, long petiolate, green, red or purple, forming a rosette on the ground. Scape of up to 2 m with numerous flowers grouped in a large and diffuse panicle. Fruits joined in groups of two or more.