Annual or rarely biennial with slender taproot; glaucous. Stems branching, 5–80 cm long. Leaves more or less sessile, linear-oblanceolate, obtuse, slightly fleshy, 5–30 mm long, 0.3–2.5 mm wide; stipules acuminate, denticulate. Inflorescence of dense terminal and axillary clusters. Flowers 1.5 mm diam.; pedicels with abscission joint near base, 0.2–1 mm long; calyx glabrous, sepals obtuse, green or red with broad white margins, c. 1 mm long; petals almost equalling sepals, white, often red-tipped. Capsule ovoid, obscurely trigonous, 2.5 mm long, 1–1.5 mm wide; seeds dark reddish-brown, finely striate-rugulose, 0.4–0.5 mm diam. Flowers Mar.–Jun.
VVP, VRiv, CVU, EGL, HSF. Also naturalised WA. Native to south-western Europe, North and East Africa, western Asia. A rare casual of waste ground in Victoria; a weed of damp, sandy places elsewhere in Australia. .
Source:
Adams, L.G. (1996). Caryophyllaceae. In: Walsh, N.G.; Entwisle, T.J., Flora of Victoria Vol. 3, Dicotyledons Winteraceae to Myrtaceae, pp. 228–271. Inkata Press, Melbourne.
