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

General:
Annual herb from a taproot or fibrous roots; straight, slender, appressed-hairy throughout; stems numerous and prostrate to ascending, or single and erect, to 20 cm long/tall.

Leaves:
Basal leaves virtually absent; stem leaves linear to oblong, entire, 2-6.5 cm long, to 5 mm wide, lower 1-4 pairs opposite, the others alternate.

Flowers:
Inflorescence of terminal, coiled, elongating, loosely-flowered spikes, often with leafy bracts on the lower part; flowers small; petals white, fused at base into a tube that spreads (1-4 mm wide) at top to 5 lobes, with 5 yellow or white bulges at the throat; fruiting calyces 2-4 mm long, ascending-hairy.

Fruits:
Nutlets usually 4, clustered together, egg-shaped or narrowly egg-shaped, 1.5-2 mm long, more or less wrinkled and pimply and sometimes also bristly.