Flowering spring-early summer. Dry, open places, sandy and gravelly ground, roadsides, waste land; 0-2000 m; introduced; B.C., N.B., N.S., Ont., P.E.I.; Ala., Alaska, Ariz., Calif., Fla., Idaho, La., Maine, Mass., Miss., Mo., N.H., N.Y., N.C., Oreg., Pa., R.I., S.C., Tex., Wash.; Europe; introduced worldwide.

Plant: Annual 10-40 cm; stem decumbent to erect, short-rough-hairy to minutely bristly Leaves: simple, opposite, gradually reduced upward; lower 1-3.5 cm, 3-5 mm wide, oblanceolate; upper 0.8-2.5 cm, 2-4 mm wide, oblanceolate to oblong INFLORESCENCE: cymes, axillary and terminal; flowers ascending to erect, sessile to short-pedicelled Flowers: calyx 6-10 mm, glandular-hairy (especially on veins), 10-veined, lobes ± 1 mm; sepals 5; petals 5, 6-48 mm; petal claw long, glabrous; appendages 2, blade entire to notched, white, pink, or lavender; stamens included; styles 3, included Fruit: capsule, ovoid; stalk < 1 mm, puberulent; teeth 3, 6, or 10, ascending to recurved; Seed ± 1 mm, gray Misc: Fields, disturbed areas; < 1000 m.