Description

Key Characters:

Growth Form: Annual herbs (0.5–)2–5 dm tall.

Stems: Stems erect, sparingly branched, glabrous to sparsely hirsute in lower parts, glandular pubescent in upper parts.

Roots:

Leaves: Leaves simple. Alternate. Blades linear to oblong–elliptic, 20–50 mm long, 2–7 mm wide. Surfaces glabrous to ciliate. Margins entire. Short-petiolate or sessile. Stipules absent.

Flowers: Flowers in lax, terminal racemes. Flowers bisexual (perfect). Pedicels very short in flower, elongating up to 4 mm long in fruit, bracts similar to leaves but much smaller. Calyx 10–17 mm long, the lobes linear, the longest one ca. 1.5 times as long as shortest one. Corolla pink, rarely white, 10–15 mm long, as long as or slightly shorter than calyx. Stamens 4, in 2 pairs; filaments often dilated toward apex; anthers dithecal. Ovary superior, 2-carpellate, with as many cells; ovule placentation axile; stigma capitate.

Fruit: Capsules ovoid; gibbous; 8–10 mm long; glandular pubescent. Seeds somewhat flattened; 1 face smooth; keeled and prolonged into a narrow wing; the other face finely tuberculate; with a wide; raised; sinuate; papillose border.

Ploidy: 2n = 14; 16

Habitat: Dry ridges.

Elevation Range: