Plants annual. Stems erect, simple or branched at base, 5.5–30 cm, shaggy, hairs silvery, spreading-ascending; small axillary tufts of leaves absent. Leaves not marces-cent; blade 4–15(–20) × 1.5–5(–7) mm, pubescence of long, glandular and/or eglandular hairs; basal ± crowded, blade oblanceolate, spatulate, apex obtuse; cauline sessile, blade lanceolate or elliptic, apex acute. Inflorescences lax, dichasiate, 3–30-flowered cymes; bracts herbaceous, lanceolate, densely pubescent, with long, ascending, glandular or eglandular hairs. Pedicels erect or ascending, bent distally in fruit, 6–15 mm, longer than capsule, shaggy, glandular or eglandular. Flowers: sepals lanceolate, 4–4.5 mm, foliaceous, with or without narrow margins, densely pubescent, hairs exceeding sepal tips; petals oblanceolate, 2–3 mm, ca. 0.5 times as long as sepals, apex 2-fid, sparsely ciliate proximally; stamens 10, with few long hairs near filament base; styles 5. Capsules cylindric, slightly curved near apex, 5–7 mm, ca. 1.5 times as long as sepals; teeth 10, erect, margins convolute. Seeds pale brown, 0.5 mm diam., acutely tuberculate; testa not inflated. 2n = 72 (Europe), 88, 90.
