Herbs, annual (or short-lived perennial-). Taproots filiform to stout. Stems diffuse to erect, repeatedly dichotomous, terete. Leaves opposite (cauline) or rosulate (basal), connate (distally) or not (proximally), petiolate (basal) or sessile (cauline); stipules 2 per node (cauline leaves) or forming tuft of to 14+ per node (basal leaves), white to tan, filiform, forming incised or notched nodal fringe; blade 1-veined, spatulate to suborbiculate (basal) or scalelike, subulate to triangular (cauline), not succulent, apex obtuse. Inflorescences terminal, compact, few-flowered cymes; bracts paired, scalelike. Pedicels erect. Flowers: perianth and androecium hypogynous; sepals distinct, reddish brown, elliptic to obovate, 0.8-2 mm, scarious, margins scarious, apex acute to obtuse or mucronate; petals 5, white, blade apex entire to erose; nectaries as minute, rounded lobes flanking filament bases; stamens 3-5; filaments distinct; styles 3, distinct or nearly so, capitate, ca. 0.2 mm, glabrous proximally; stigmas 3, terminal, obscurely papillate (30×). Capsules ellipsoid to globose, opening by 3 recurved valves; carpophore absent. Seeds ca. 20, golden chestnut to reddish brown, ± triangular, laterally compressed, lustrous, reticulate, marginal wing absent, appendage absent.
Fls small, in condensed, few-fld, minutely bracteate fascicles at the branch-tips; sep 5, 2 merely blunt, 3 with sharply marked, expanded, white-hyaline scarious, rounded and distally notched tip; pet 5, white, clawed, minutely toothed or entire, subpersistent, barely surpassing the sep; stamens 3-5; style trifid above a short but evident undivided basal portion; capsule 3-valved; seeds few, on a short free-central placenta; short- lived, taprooted, slender, rigidly and angularly (often subdichotomously) branched, glabrous plants with small lvs in an overwintering basal rosette, the cauline lvs reduced to tiny scales at the nodes. (Monospecific, se. U.S.)
Gleason, Henry A. & Cronquist, Arthur J. 1991. Manual of vascular plants of northeastern United States and adjacent Canada. lxxv + 910 pp.
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