General:
Annual or short-lived perennial herb from well-developed taproot; stems erect, solitary, freely branched, hairy, 10-50 cm tall.
Leaves:
Basal leaves linear, soon deciduous; stem leaves linear or linear-lanceolate, opposite, stiff-hairy, entire or occasionally slightly toothed, 2-8 cm long, 1-3 mm wide, with several smaller, linear, axillary leaves at each internode.
Flowers:
Inflorescence of dense bracteate, axillary spikes 0.5-1.5 cm long on stalks 2-8 cm long; corollas 4-lobed, the lobes egg-shaped, reflexed, 1.5-2 mm long; bracts wide, rounded, papery-margined, lowermost leaf-like; stamens conspicuous.
Fruits:
Capsules, broadly-ellipsoid, 3-3.5 mm long; seeds 2, narrowly elliptic, shiny, brown, 2.0-2.5 mm long.
Source: The Illustrated Flora of British Columbia
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