Plants perennial; taproot stout; caudex becoming branched, bearing tufts of leaves. Stems several, erect, unbranched proximal to inflorescence, 10-40 cm, puberulent. Leaves mostly basal, petiolate, blade oblan-ceolate or spatulate, 1.5-5 cm × 2-6 mm, apex acute, glabrous except for a few cilia on petiole; cauline leaves in 2-4 pairs, reduced distally, blade linear to narrowly lanceolate or oblanceolate, 2-7 cm × 2-6 mm. Inflorescences cymose, 1-3-flowered, open, bracteate; cyme 1, terminal, often with 1 flower at next node; bracts linear-lanceolate, 5-20 mm. Pedicels erect, from 0.5 cm, lengthening to 3 cm in fruit, gray and somewhat retrorse-puberulent with stipitate-glandular hairs. Flowers: calyx prominently 10-veined, veins parallel, green, with pale commissures, broadened in lobes, narrowly campanulate and 7-11 × 3-4 mm in flower, campanulate and 8-12 × 4-5 mm in fruit, tending to broaden proximally, glandular-puberulent, lobes 5, erect, lanceolate, 1-2 mm, apex blunt; petals cream to pink, often tinged with dusky purple, slightly longer than calyx, limb 1-2 mm, unlobed or apex notched; stamens equaling calyx; stigmas 3, equaling calyx. Capsules narrowly ovoid, 10-13 mm, slightly longer than calyx, opening with 6 outwardly curved teeth; carpophore shorter than 1 mm. Seeds brown, reniform, angular, 0.7-1 mm, margins with large, balloonlike papillae, sides rugose. 2n = 48.
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