Stems 5-20 cm. Inflorescences 3-8-flowered. Flowers 1.2-1.8 mm, hairs of 2 sizes, long hairs 2- 3 as long as sepals, short hairs 1/ 1/ 3 as long as sepals, tips of some or all hooked or tightly coiled; hypanthium area pubescent, tips of hairs hooked or tightly coiled; sepals in fruit ± unequal, of 2 lengths; stamens 2-3; styles distinct, 0.2-0.4 mm. Seeds 0.5-0.6 mm. 2n = 36 (Europe).

Flowering spring-fall. Disturbed areas, alkaline hills, clay flats; 40-800 m; introduced; Ariz., Calif., Md., Oreg.; s Europe; sw Asia; n Africa.

Historical collections of var. cinerea are known from New York (1890s) and Wisconsin (1870). It was also collected once in Washington in 1979 (C. T. Roché 1991) but did not persist.

Duration: Annual

Nativity: Non-Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Introduced annual, prostrate and spreading, forming mats 5-25 cm wide, hispid throughout, ovate stipules, 0.5-0.8 mm long, ciliate, hyaline.

Leaves: Sessile, oblong to oblanceolate, 3-11 mm long, acute at apex.

Flowers: Dense axillary clusters of 3-8 greenish flowers, calyx 1.8-2 mm long, campanulate tube, about 0.4-0.6 mm long, calyx lobes ovate, slightly boat-shaped, unequal, 0.8-1.4 mm long, margins of inner ones narrowly hyaline-winged, either hooked or tightly coiled.

Fruits: Utricle broadly ovoid-lenticular, yellowish, granulose-puberulent near apex, about 0.8 mm high, suborbicular-lenticular seeds, about 0.6 mm in diameter, dark red-brown.

Ecology: Found in disturbed areas, alkaline hills, clay flats below 3,000 ft (914 m); flowers March-April.

Notes: Distinguished by being small and inconspicuous, annual, with stems branching from base, and the minute stipules.

Ethnobotany: Unknown, but it was historically said to be used in the treatment of hernias.

Etymology: Herniaria is from the Latin hernia, to rupture, while hirsuta means hairy.

Synonyms: Herniaria cinerea

Editor: SBuckley, 2010