Slender annual 1-4 dm, the stem often retrorse-scabrous on the angles; lvs in whorls of 5-8, often 6, linear or linear-oblanceolate, mucronate, 1-nerved, 4-10 mm, antrorsely scabrous on the margins; fls in small cymes ending the mostly numerous branches; cor minute; fr 1 mm, the segments approximate; 2n=22, 44, 55, 66. Native of Europe, intr. as a weed in fields and roadsides in the s. part of our range. June-Aug. Our plants, with the slightly granular-roughened, otherwise glabrous frs, are var. leiocarpum Tausch. (G. divaricatum) Var. parisiense has hooked hairs on the frs.

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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This species was found by R. C. Friesner in 1935 in an abandoned field on the east side of State Road 135 about 0.3 mile north of Bean Blossom, Brown County. He says that it was common over at least three acres of a large field. In 1939 he revisited this place and reported it even more common than in 1935.