Pine-barren stitchwort or sandwort, long-root

Arenaria caroliniana Walter, Fl. Carol., 141. 1788; Alsinopsis caroliniana (Walter) Small; Minuopsis caroliniana (Walter) W. A. Weber; Sabulina caroliniana (Walter) Small

Plants perennial. Taproots stout, woody; crown with radiating subterranean branches. Stems erect to ascending, green, 8-28 cm, glabrous, internodes of flowering stems 0.3-10 times as long as leaves. Leaves variably spaced distally, overlapping (proximal 3), connate proximally, with tight, scarious to herbaceous sheath 0.2-1.5 mm; blade straight to slightly spreading, green, concave, 3-veined, lateral veins less prominent, lanceolate to subulate, 2-13 × 1-5 mm, rigid, margins rounded, scarious in proximal 1/ 2/ 3, smooth, apex green, blunt to apiculate, navicular, shiny, glabrous; axillary leaves present. Inflorescences 5-12+-flowered, narrow cymes; bracts ovate to subulate, ± scarious. Pedicels 0.2-3 cm, densely stipitate-glandular. Flowers: hypanthium disc- to cup-shaped; sepals obscurely veined, ± broadly ovate (herbaceous portion ± broadly ovate), 2.5-3 mm, not enlarging in fruit, apex green, rounded, not hooded, stipitate-glandular proximally; petals spatulate, 2.5-3.2 times as long as sepals, apex broadly rounded, entire. Capsules on stipe ca 0.1 mm, ovoid, 4.7-5 mm, longer than sepals. Seeds brown, suborbiculate, without prolonged beak, not compressed, 0.6-0.65 mm, tuberculate; tubercles low, rounded.

Flowering spring-early summer. Oak or pine woodlands, dry, open, sandy areas; 0-100 m; Del., Fla., Ga., Md., N.J., N.Y., N.C., R.I., S.C., Va.