Plants perennial. Stems procum-bent to erect, 3-25 cm, becoming somewhat woody basally. Leaf blades 3-13 mm. Flowers usually longer than bracts; hypanthium becoming shallowly furrowed in fruit, 1-1.3 mm; sepals over-lapping, usually bending together in fruit, 2.5-4 mm, margins 0.3-0.5 mm wide, apex blunt or rounded; stamens ca. equaling sepals. 'Fruits' 2.5-4.5 mm including sepals. 2n = 22 (Europe).

Flowering summer-fall. Roadsides, sandy areas, shores; 0-300 m; introduced; Que.; Conn., Mass., Mich., Wis.; c Europe; w Asia.