Annual with branched taproot; hairs glandular and eglandular. Stems slender, erect or decumbent, 5–45 cm long. Leaves sessile, obovate, elliptic or ovate, 5–25 mm long, 3–18 mm wide. Inflorescence fairly dense; bracts entirely herbaceous. Flowers 5-merous; pedicels much shorter than capsules; calyx glandular- or rarely eglandular-pilose, sepals lanceolate, 3–5 mm long, 1–1.5 mm wide, narrow-acute, margins narrowly scarious; petals more or less equalling sepals, one-quarter bifid, rarely absent; styles 5. Capsule curved, 6–10 mm long; seeds pale to chestnut-brown, finely elongate-tuberculate, 0.4–0.5 mm diam. Flowers Aug.–Jan.