Plants annual. Stems prostrate to ascending, branched from base, 15-20 cm, sessile. Leaves: blade ± terete, linear, 1-2 cm. Inflorescences axillary, flowers solitary, sessile or petiolate; bracts absent. Flowers 4-5 mm diam.; hypanthium obconic; calyx lobes 5, equal; petals 20, connate, white, aging yellow; stamens 10. Capsules finely papillate. Seeds 100, smooth to minutely tuberculate. 2n = 36. Flowering spring-fall. Coastal bluffs, margins of saline wetlands; 0-100 m; introduced; Calif., N.J.; Mexico (Baja California); Europe (Mediterranean); Asia; Atlantic Islands; Australia.

Plant: Annual, biennial, glabrous, conspicuously papillate; stem prostrate to ascending, branched from base, 15-20 cm Leaves: simple, opposite, sessile, 1-2 cm, linear, ± cylindric, reddish with age or stress INFLORESCENCE: cyme or flower axillary; pedicel short Flowers: 4-5 mm diam; hypanthium obconic; sepals 5, equal; petals free, linear, white, aging yellow; stamens many; ovary inferior, chambers 5-20, styles 5-20 Fruit: Fruit: capsule, dehiscing when moist; valves 5; Seeds many, round, compressed, often "D" shaped, with minute tubercles, light or dark reddish brown Misc: Coastal bluffs, margins of saline wetlands; < 100 m.