Plants annual, with minute, tuberous bodies; periderm absent. Stems 5-15 cm. Leaves: blades gray, beige, or pink, glaucous; basal blades linear (almost filiform), 3-12 × 0.05-0.1 cm; cauline leaves sessile, blades distinct and spatulate or partially connate into horn shape, 0.2-1.5 cm, or perfoliate, 0.2-1.5 cm wide. Inflorescences 1-bracteate; bract leaflike, 0.5-15 mm. Flowers 6-12 mm diam.; sepals 2-3 mm; petals pink or white, 6-10 mm; ovules 3. Seeds 1-2 mm diam., tuberculate; elaiosome 0.5-1 mm. 2n = 16.

Flowering Feb-May. Moist areas on serpentine in open glades or slopes of chaparral and foothill pine woodlands; 100-1200 m; Calif.