Stems 2.5-19 cm, glabrous, glaucous. Leaf blades 5-18 mm. Pedicels 1-7.6 cm. Petals ca. 2- 3 times as long as sepals. Capsules 5-6.5 mm, usually 5-1 times as long as sepals. 2n = 38 (Europe).

Flowering spring. Lawns, disturbed areas; 0-600 m; introduced; B.C.; Calif., Ill., Oreg., S.C., Wash.; Europe.

Moenchia erecta is known in widely scattered areas of western North America; its occurrence in the east is limited. Historical records from the 1830s exist as specimens collected at Baltimore, Maryland, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; the species has not been recollected in either place since. The Illinois population, first documented in 1993, is scattered over an acre of a mowed field in a city park.