Plant: Tiny annual forb usually less than 5 cm in small clump; taproot generally red, purple when dry; stem much-branched throughout, strigose and bristly or rough-hairy; hairs generally ascending

Leaves: herbage bristly; 0.3-1.5 cm, linear to narrowly oblanceolate, bristly to rough-hairy; hairs ± ascending; basal whorled; cauline generally opposite below, alternate above, simple, entire

INFLORESCENCE: cymes, axillary or in branch forks; flowers 1-5 per cluster, dense in fruit

Flowers: flowers white; sepals 1.5-2 mm, 2.5-4 mm and circumscissile below middle in fruit, hairs ± like leaves; corolla generally white, tube generally 1-13 mm, white to yellow, corolla limb 1-6 mm wide, appendages 5, generally yellow; anthers included; ovary generally 4-lobed

Fruit: Fruit: nutlets 3-4, ± 1.5-2 mm, ovate, back generally smooth, shiny, generally mottled gray and brown, groove ± open below middle, forked at base

Misc: Sandy soils; 300-3700 m.; Jul-Aug