Plants annual or biennial, gla-brous, glaucous. Stems 5-50 cm. Leaves mostly alternate; blade lance-oblong to linear-oblance-olate, 5-30 mm, base narrowed to obscure petiole. Pedicels artic-ulated, to 1 mm. Flowers: sepals 1-1.5 mm; staminodes white to pink, sometimes red-tipped. Utricles 1-2 mm. 2n = 16, 18, 32, 54 (Europe).

Flowering summer-fall. Waste places, ballasts, grassy areas; 0-200 m; introduced; B.C.; Md., Oreg.; Eurasia.

Historical records from ballast grounds at Camden, New Jersey (1870s), and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, exist, as well as a single report as a garden weed from Massachusetts (1900-; Manning s.n., GH).