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Herb, annual or biennial, shortly hairy, at least above. Stems erect, simple or branched, 30–60 cm high. Leaves sessile, sheathing, linear-oblanceolate to linear, acute, keeled, 25–65 mm long, 1–3 mm wide, pubescent; margins smooth; basal leaves rosulate. Inflorescence 2–10-flowered; bracts herbaceous, acuminate, equalling flower-clusters. Pedicels 3–5 mm long. Epicalyx scales 2, lanceolate-subulate, hairy, ±e qualling calyx. Calyx cylindrical, 13–20 mm long, 2–3 mm wide, strongly ribbed, woolly; calyx-lobes 5, lanceolate-acuminate. Petals spathulate, 4–5 mm long, serrate, rose red, pale-dotted. Styles 2. Capsule ± cylindrical, c. 6 mm long. Seeds c. 2 mm long, c. 1.5 mm wide, black, bluntly tuberculate.
Annual or biennial, 2–6 dm, the stem usually strigose below the nodes; basal lvs numerous, narrowly oblanceolate; cauline lvs 5–10 pairs, linear to lanceolate, 3–8 cm × 2–8 mm, pubescent; fls in congested, 3–9-fld cymes, often surpassed by the slender, erect bracts; cal villous-puberulent, 12–20 mm, (20–)25-nerved; pet-blade elliptic-oblanceolate, 4–5 mm, dentate, pink or rose, dotted with white; fr equaling the cal; 2n=30. Native of Europe, established as a weed from Que. and Ont. to B.C., s. to Fla. and Ark. May–July.
