Herbs, annual (or short-lived perennial?). Taproots filiform to stout. Stems diffuse to erect, repeatedly dichotomous, terete. Leaves opposite (cauline) or rosulate (basal), connate (distally) or not (proximally), petiolate (basal) or sessile (cauline); stipules 2 per node (cauline leaves) or forming tuft of to 14+ per node (basal leaves), white to tan, filiform, forming incised or notched nodal fringe; blade 1-veined, spatulate to suborbiculate (basal) or scalelike, subulate to triangular (cauline), not succulent, apex obtuse. Inflorescences terminal, compact, few-flowered cymes; bracts paired, scalelike. Pedicels erect. Flowers: perianth and androecium hypogynous; sepals distinct, reddish brown, elliptic to obovate, 0.8-2 mm, scarious, margins scarious, apex acute to obtuse or mucronate; petals 5, white, blade apex entire to erose; nectaries as minute, rounded lobes flanking filament bases; stamens 3-5; filaments distinct; styles 3, distinct or nearly so, capitate, ca. 0.2 mm, glabrous proximally; stigmas 3, terminal, obscurely papillate (30×). Capsules ellipsoid to globose, opening by 3 recurved valves; carpophore absent. Seeds ca. 20, golden chestnut to reddish brown, ± triangular, laterally compressed, lustrous, reticulate, marginal wing absent, appendage absent.
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Fls small, in condensed, few-fld, minutely bracteate fascicles at the branch-tips; sep 5, 2 merely blunt, 3 with sharply marked, expanded, white-hyaline scarious, rounded and distally notched tip; pet 5, white, clawed, minutely toothed or entire, subpersistent, barely surpassing the sep; stamens 3–5; style trifid above a short but evident undivided basal portion; capsule 3-valved; seeds few, on a short free-central placenta; short-lived, taprooted, slender, rigidly and angularly (often subdichotomously) branched, glabrous plants with small lvs in an overwintering basal rosette, the cauline lvs reduced to tiny scales at the nodes. (Monospecific, se. U.S.)
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