Plants perennial, usually clumped, taproot present, sometimes with short rhizomes. Stems: flowering shoots ascending, often decumbent at base, branched, (15-)25-35(-40) cm, softly pubescent to subglabrous, hairs spreading, straight, concentrated in longitudinal lines toward base, glandular and eglandular; nonflowering leafy shoots often present, straggling, 5-15 cm; small axillary tufts of leaves present. Leaves sessile; cauline with largest at mid stem, smaller distally and proximally, blade narrowly oblong, linear-lanceolate to lanceolate or ovate, 20-45 × 3-11 mm, apex usually obtuse, softly ciliate-pubescent on both surfaces, more so on margins and abaxial midrib, rarely subglabrous, sometimes densely villose; proximal leaf blades often oblanceolate, apex ± obtuse. Inflorescences lax, 5-20-flowered cymes, pubescent, glandular, not viscid; bracts lanceolate, proximal foliaceous, distal smaller, with scarious margins, glandular-pubescent. Pedicels curved immediately below capsule, slender, 10-24 mm, ca. 2 times as long as sepals, pubescence spreading, glandular. Flowers: sepals lanceolate-elliptic, 5-8 mm, margins narrow, apex acute, densely and softly glandular-pubescent; petals obovate, 10-15 mm, 2 times as long as sepals, apex deeply 2-fid; stamens 10; anthers 0.9-1.1 mm; styles 5. Capsules cylindric, slightly curved, slender, 10-14 × 3-4 mm, 2-2.3 times as long as sepals; teeth 10, erect, margins convolute. Seeds brown, 0.8-1.2 mm diam., tuberculate; testa not inflated, tightly enclosing seed. 2n = 72.
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