Herbs, annual, synoecious, 1-5 dm. Stems erect, branched proximally and distally, glabrous. Leaves persistent or fugaceous; ocrea margins not ciliate; blade linear to narrowly clavate, (1.5-)5-20(-35) × 0.4-1.2 mm, base barely tapered, margins not hyaline, apex obtuse, glabrous. Inflorescences (13-)20-33(-40) mm; ocreola encircling rachis, only the base adnate to rachis, apex acute. Pedicels spreading in anthesis, reflexed in fruit, 0.9-2.1 mm, longer than subtending ocreola. Flowers bisexual; outer tepals loosely appressed in anthesis and fruit, pink to white, occasionally red, distal portion of midrib often inconspicuously greenish, elliptic to obovate, 1.3-2.3 mm in flower, margins entire to erose; inner tepals loosely appressed in anthesis and fruit, white to pink, occasionally red, elliptic, 1.3-2.3 mm in anthesis, margins mostly entire; filaments dimorphic; anthers yellow or pink; styles and stigmas ca. 0.1 mm in anthesis. Achenes included or exserted, reddish brown, 3(-4)-gonous, 2-2.8 × 1-1.3 mm, shiny, smooth. 2n = 32.

Flowering Sep-Nov. Pine barrens, sandhills, and sandy sites along lake shores, beaches, river banks, roadsides, and railroads; 0-500 m; Ont., P.E.I., Que.; Conn., Del., Ga., Ill., Ind., Iowa, Maine, Md., Mass., Mich., Minn., N.H., N.J., N.Y., N.C., Pa., R.I., Wis., Vt., Va.

Slender, wiry annual 1-5 dm, branched at least above; lvs narrow, revolute, 5-20 mm, 1 mm wide or less, not hyaline-margined; racemes erect or ascending, 2-3.5 cm; pedicels 2-3 mm, slender, decurved; fls perfect; tep white or greenish to pink or red, 1.5-2 mm, larger in fr, the 2 outer obovate, keeled above, the 3 inner elliptic, all remaining loosely appressed; achene 2-2.5 mm; 2n=32. Dry, acid sands; Me. and s. Que. to ne. N.C., mostly on the coastal plain; shores of the Great Lakes, and inland dunes to s. Ill., Io. and Minn. July, Oct. (Delopyrum a.)

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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Local on the dunes about Lake Michigan. It is usually found in open, exposed places.