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General:
Low annual herb from a taproot; stems decumbent to erect, 2-20 cm tall, usually freely branched from the base, soft-hairy.
Leaves:
Alternate, short-stalked, broadly egg- to fan-shaped, the blades 4-10 mm long; sparsely long-hairy on both surfaces, deeply palmately cleft into 3 wedge-shaped segments themselves divided into 3 to 5 oblong lobes; stipules fused into a lobed, leaf-like cup, the lobes of the stipules surrounding the flower clusters triangular and 1/2 the length of the unlobed portion.
Flowers:
Inflorescence of axillary clusters of 5 to 15 tiny, short-stalked flowers, the clusters borne along most of the length of the stem at each node, in the axils of sheathing stipules; corollas lacking; calyces green, urn-shaped, long-hairy, 1-2.5 mm long, 4-lobed, the lobes triangular-egg-shaped, erect, 0.2-0.6 mm long; ovaries superior; stamens usually 1.
Fruits:
Achenes, 1, ellipsoid, smooth, about 1 mm long, encased within the dry hypanthium, which has ascending calyx-lobes so that the whole structure appears flask-shaped, this 1.5-2.5 mm long.
Source: The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia
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