Stems green to purplish, with widely divergent or dichotomous branches, 7-40 cm, rigid, glan-dular-hairy at least distally. Leaf blades 0.5-2 cm, margins scar-ious near base, ciliate. Pedicels 1.5-3.5 mm. Flowers: calyx tube 10-14 × 0.8-1 mm, lobes 1-1.2 mm, base swollen, hardened; petals narrowly obovate, 11-16 mm, coronal appendages 0.4-0.6 mm. Capsules with rounded tip; carpophore 0.2-0.7 mm. Seeds in 1 row, with abrupt but round point, 1.3-1.8 mm. 2n = 28 (Europe).

Flowering spring-early summer. Oak and pine woodlands, open ridges, gravelly streambeds, serpentine areas; 50-800 m; introduced; Calif.; Europe (Mediter-ranean region); sw, c Asia; Africa (Mediterranean region).

Velezia rigida is now known from at least eight counties in northern California; it was first collected in North America in 1896 (Jepson s.n., JEPS).