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Stems often profusely branched distally, 11--90 cm ´ 0.1--2 mm; internodes 0.1--9 cm, without prickles. Leaves spreading with age, 0.3--3.3 cm, lax in age; sheath 1--3.4 mm wide, apex rounded to truncate; blade 0.2--2.1 mm wide, margins minutely serrulate, teeth 18--100 per side, apex rounded to truncateslightly auriculate, with 1--3 teeth, teeth unicellular; midvein without prickles abaxially. Flowers 1--3 per axil, staminate and pistillate on same plants. Staminate flowers in distal axils, 1.5--3 mm; involucral beaks 4-lobed, 0.2--1.3 mm; anther 1-or 4-loculed, 1--1.7 mm. Pistillate flowers in proximal axils, 1.5--4 mm; styles 0.3--1.5 mm; stigmas 4-lobed. Seeds not recurved, yellowish white with purple tinge, fusiform, 1.2--3.8 ´ 0.4--0.8 mm, apex with style situated at center; testa dull, 3 cell layers thick, pitted; aeroleareoles regularly arranged in 20--60 longitudinal rows, not ladderlike, 4--6-angled, longer than broad, end walls not raised. 2n = 12, 36, 42, 48, 54, 60.
Monoecious; stems profusely branched, 1–8 dm; lvs 0.5–3 cm × 0.2–2 mm, spreading, not so sharply pointed as in our other spp., with sloping shoulders at the base, minutely serrulate with 20–100 unicellular teeth per side; anthers dithecal, with 4 microsporangia; style apical; seeds 1.2–2.5 mm, purple-tinged, fusiform, pitted, the areolae 4–6-angled, about as long (0.08–0.1 mm) as wide, in 20–40 rows; 2n=12, 36, 48, 54, 60. Widespread in N. and S. Amer., n. to Me., s. Que., Man., Alta., and Wash. The widespread var. guadalupensis, slender, with stems 0.2–1 mm thick, and with 50–100 teeth on each side of the lf, tends to give way at the n. to var. olivacea (Rosend. & Butters) R. R. Haynes, which occurs from N.Y. and s. Que. to n. Ind., n. Io., and s. Man., and is stouter, with stems mostly 1–2 mm thick, and with 20–40 teeth per side of the lf. (N. olivacea)
