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

General:
Annual herb from slender taproot; stems ascending to erect, simple, solitary to few branched, glabrous or uniformly curly-hairy, threadlike, 3-25 cm tall.

Leaves:
Leaves opposite, confined to the lower half of the stem, the basal with a small egg-shaped blade 3-8 mm long and a slender stalk at least as long; stem leaves linear or linear-lanceolate, 5-10 mm long; stipules lacking.

Flowers:
Inflorescence of several flowers in large membranous-bracted clusters; petals 5 or lacking, shorter than the sepals, 2-cleft nearly to the base; sepals 5, 3-4 mm long, lanceolate, abruptly sharp-pointed, margins translucent, 3-nerved.

Fruits:
Capsules narrowly cylindric egg-shaped, 3-4 mm long, 6-valved; seeds 0.5-0.7 mm long, finely wrinkled-warty.