Herbs, spreading, annual, 1-4(-5) dm, glabrous, greenish to reddish brown. Stems: caudex absent; aerial flowering stems erect, solid, not fistulose, 0.3-1 dm, glabrous, glandular distally. Leaves basal; petiole 0.5-2.5 cm, hirsute, slightly winged; blade spatulate, 2-6 × 0.5-2 cm, hirsute and greenish on both surfaces, margins plane, often ciliate. Inflorescences cymose, usually diffuse, 10-35 × 10-50 cm; branches not fistulose, glabrous, glandular at nodes; bracts 3, scalelike, 1-2 × 1-2 mm. Peduncles spreading, straight, capillary, 0.4-1.5(-2.5) cm, glabrous or sparsely glandular at least proximally. Involucres turbinate, 0.5-0.9 × 0.5-0.7 mm, glabrous; teeth 4, erect or nearly so, 0.3-0.5 mm. Flowers 0.5-0.9 mm; perianth pink to red with red midribs, puberulent, becoming white with pink to red midribs; tepals slightly dimorphic, those of outer whorl ovate and 0.5-0.7 mm wide, those of inner whorl oblong and 0.4-0.5 mm wide; stamens included, 0.5-0.6 mm; filaments glabrous. Achenes dark brown to blackish, 3-gonous, 1-1.3 mm, glabrous. 2n = 40.
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