Tall, hairless plant to 130 cm, leaves lanceolate, unlobed, wavy edged. Flowers yellowish green, 4 or 5 mm; sepals and petals 4, in a long terminal spike, sometimes bending or curving.

Stony and sandy places, waste ground, roadsides, paths and field margins.

June to September.

Biennial.

Frequent throughout much of Britain but scarce in the north.

Frequent in Leicestershire and Rutland. In the 1979 Flora survey of Leicestershire it was found in 140 of the 617 tetrads.