Erect perennial herb, to 40 cm high; stems usually numerous, slender, sparsely branched, pubescent, hairs mostly antrorse. Basal leaves oblanceolate, 2–5 cm long, to 1.5 cm wide, entire to pinnatifid, petiolate; cauline leaves mostly ovate-lanceolate, 1–3 cm long, to 12 mm wide, usually sinuate-denticulate, sometimes lobed, acute to acuminate, petiolate, small and bractlike in upper part of stem. Flowers in upper leaf axils, actinomorphic, opening before sunrise and fading by late afternoon, erect in bud and at anthesis, pedicellate; hypanthium 4–8 mm long; sepals 6–12 mm long, often failing to separate completely; petals 5–12 mm long, usually deep pink. Capsule clavate, 8–10 mm long, 3–4 mm wide, ribbed, pubescent, dehiscing mainly at apex, pedicel 5–20 mm long. Flowers mostly Aug.–Mar.
MuM, MSB, EGU. Also naturalised Qld, NSW. Native to central America from Texas to Bolivia, widely cultivated. Has become established in the Mildura area in far north-western Victoria, presumably as a garden-escape.
