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Annuals; canescent throughout, trichomes appressed, 6-10-rayed, mixed with simple and forked on pedicels and sepals. Stems simple or few to several from base, erect, ascending, or decumbent, (unbranched or branched distally), 0.5-3.5 (-5) dm. Cauline leaves subsessile or (proximal) shortly petiolate; blade usually narrowly oblanceolate to linear, sometimes spatulate or obovate, 3-4(-4.5) cm × (0.5-) 1-3.5(-5) mm, base attenuate or cuneate, apex obtuse or acute. Fruiting pedicels divaricate or ascending, straight, slender, 2-5(-6) mm, trichomes stellate, with fewer, simple and forked ones. Flowers: sepals (persistent) oblong, (1.5-)2-3 × 0.7-1.1 mm, pubescent as pedicels; petals (often persistent) white or pale yellow, usually linear to linear-oblanceolate, rarely obovate, 2-3(-4) × 0.3-0.7(-1) mm, apex emarginate, glabrous or sparsely stellate-pubescent abaxially; filaments (slender) not appendaged, toothed, or winged, 1-1.5 mm; anthers ovate, 0.15-0.2 mm. Fruits orbicular, (2-)3-4(-5) mm diam., apex emarginate or truncate; valves uniformly inflated at middle, strongly flattened at margins, sparsely stellate-pubescent; ovules 2 per ovary; style (slender), 0.3-0.6(-1) mm, basally stellate-pubescent or glabrous. Seeds oblong to ovoid, compressed, 1.1-2 × 0.7-1.1 mm, margins narrow, ca. 0.1 mm wide. 2n = 32.
Annual herb; stems erect, leafy, branched below, (5)-10-18-(45) cm tall. Lvs entire, stellate-hairy, (2)-5-10 × (1)-2-4 mm; basal lvs oblanceolate to obovate; stem lvs narrower. Infl. a raceme, (5)-10-15 cm long; pedicels spreading, hairy, 2-3-(4) mm long. Sepals stellate-hairy, persistent at fruiting, 3 × 1 mm. Petals hairy beneath, obtuse to shallowly emarginate, 4-6 × 1-1.5 mm. Outer filaments with slender paired appendages. Silicle almost circular, shortly emarginate, inflated in centre, 3-4 × 3-(4) mm; valves stellate-hairy; veins faint or 0; style 0.3-0.4 mm long. Seeds brown, ovoid, flattened, narrowly winged, 1.5 × 1 mm, usually 2 per locule.
Annual, 5–25 cm, stellate-hairy throughout; lvs oblanceolate, 6–15 mm, entire, obtuse; fls pale yellow or nearly white, 2 mm wide; pet narrowly oblong; frs on widely divergent pedicels, orbicular, 3–4 mm, flat at the margin, convex toward the center; seeds 2 per locule; 2n=32. Native of Europe, abundant as a weed in waste places nearly throughout our range, and to w. U.S. May, June. (Clypeola a.)
