Usually in hard, white, slightly acid, clay soil in low, flat, wheat stubble, hayfields, and fallow fields and in poor soil in exposed places on the crests of wooded ridges.

Much-branched annual 2-8 dm, the branches usually alternate; lvs numerous, erect or ascending, linear, 5-20 mm; fls mostly solitary in the axils, short-pediceled; sep lance-linear, 3-6 mm, often surpassing the 3-5 mm pet; stamens 10-22; styles 3, to 1 mm; fr ovoid, 4-6 mm; seeds light to dark brown, 1 mm, coarsely and conspicuously rugose and areolate; 2n=24. Dry soil; Md. to O., Ill., Io., and se. Kans., s. to Fla. and Tex. July-Sept. (Sarothra d.)

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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