Stems erect, [very bushy-branched] profusely branched from base to ± simple, [0.4-]0.7-2.5[-5] dm, glabrous or with scattered inflated hairs and uniseriate nonglandular trichomes, especially towards base. Leaves non-aromatic; petiole to 0.4 mm; blade [0.8-]2.8-3.4[-4.1] × 0.1-0.3[-0.6] cm, base attenuate, margins entire (to occasionally shallowly erose-dentate) }, apex acute, mucronate, glabrous adaxially. Inflorescences a terminal thyrse, 2.2-4.5[-13] cm, or lax, pyramidal cymes, bearing flowers almost from base; bracts absent. Flowers: perianth segments 5, distinct nearly to base, distinct portions obovate to elliptic or ovate, with low tubercle or sometimes keeled abaxially, 0.5-0.7 × 0.3-0.4 mm, apex obtuse to subacute, glabrous, loosely covering fruit at maturity; stamens 5 (or absent in pistillate flowers in distal portion of inflorescence); stigmas 2. Achenes subglobose; pericarp adherent, membranaceous, finely granular. Seeds subglobose, 0.5-0.8 × 0.4-0.5 mm, margins rimmed; seed coat smooth.

Fruiting late summer-fall. Waste areas, sandy soils; 0-500 m; introduced; Mich., N.Y.; native to Asia; introduced in s, se Europe.

Branching, glabrous or granular-scaberulous annual to 3 dm, turning red in autumn; lvs linear or narrowly elliptic, entire, to 6 cm נ8 mm; fls individually solitary in the forks of the diffusely and slenderly branched axillary dichasial cymes, the ultimate branches appearing as slender spines 1-4 mm; sep 5; seeds horizontal to erect, dull blackish, 0.6-0.7 mm wide. Native to c. and e. Asia, locally established as a weed in Mich.

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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