Perennial (or ? sometimes annual) erect herb (5–)7.5–30(–60) cm. tall, with several to many stems from a slender often woody taproot, frequently forming tussocks; stems mostly with dense short spreading pubescence, rarely glabrous. Leaf-blades linear to linear-lanceolate, 1–6.5 cm. long, 0.8–4.5(–7) mm. wide, acute at the apex, narrowly cuneate at the base, the margins often revolute, puberulous above and on the midvein beneath save in “var. glabricaulis”; petiole not developed; stipule-sheath 2–4 mm. long, divided into up to 4 filiform fimbriae 2–4(–7) mm. long. Flowers heterostylous, in dense heads 0.8–1.2 cm. wide; true peduncle 0–5 mm. long but the leaves of the nodes containing the head are sometimes so reduced or hidden that the previous internode simulates a peduncle 2–3.5(–6) cm. long; pedicels usually scarcely 0.5 mm. long or not developed, rarely up to 3(–8) mm. long. Calyx-tube subglobose, 1 mm. long, 1.5 mm. wide, hairy or glabrous; lobes triangular to triangular-lanceolate, 1.5–2.5(–3) mm. long, puberulous or at least ciliate on the margins and the midvein. Corolla white, pale lilac, pale pink or bluish; tube (1.5–)2–2.8(–4) mm. long, hairy at the throat; lobes oblong-elliptic, 1.6–2.2 mm. long, 0.8–1 mm. wide, papillate inside and with a few scattered long hairs outside. Style 1.8 mm. long in short-styled flowers, 3 mm. long in long-styled flowers, hairy at the base; stigma-lobes linear, 0.4–1.2 mm. long, densely covered with rather long capitate hairs. Capsule subglobose, 1–1.8 mm. tall, 1.5–2 mm. wide, usually hairy, rarely ± glabrous, the beak slightly raised. Seeds yellow-brown, irregularly ellipsoid, 0.4 mm. long, usually raised on hilar side, flattened on opposite side.
