Slender, erect, short, soft hairs; usually arising from single stem, much branched, stems branching in 2s; narrow, smooth leaves; flower clusters of 5 small bracts, 5 nectar glands, 5 male flowers around single female flower; white petal-like appendages.Â
Abundant in wet years, slender erect annual; flower clusters of 1 female, 5 male flowers, white, triangular petal-like appendages, deeply 2-lobed, green glands; leaves to 2 inches long, ends narrow, margins smooth, opposite, stipules gland-like.
Habitat
Sandy and rocky soils on slopes and canyon bottoms in pine-juniper woodlands, oak woodlands, grasslands, creekbeds and on moist slopes.
Flower Characteristics
Flower clusters at leaf nodes, 5 bracts form a cup-like base which contains 5 nectar glands, 1 female flower surrounded by 5 male flowers; white petal-like appendages, twice as long as glands, bilobed (deeply 2-lobed), divided in 2 parts at base.
Leaf and Stem Characteristics
Opposite, narrow with pointed tip, smooth margins without teeth, 1/4 to 2 inches long; top of leaf sparsely covered with stiff bristles to fine, silky hairs; bottom surface usually smooth; no venation, only midvein conspicuous.
Fruit and Seed Characteristics
Smooth capsules.
Seeds brown to grayish-black, narrowly egg-shaped, 3- or 4-angled in cross section, sometimes obscurely so, tuberculate (covered with warts), often with shallow depressions.Â