Herbs short-lived perennial or annual, 15--40 cm tall. Stems caespitose or simple, suberect; sterile stems decumbent; flowering stems pilose and/or glandular pubescent all round. Basal leaves ovate, obovate-lanceolate, ovate-spatulate, or spatulate, 5--13 × 3--10 mm, both surfaces pilose, base attenuate into a petiole; cauline leaves subsessile, ovate, oblong, or narrowly ovate-oblong, 1--3(--4) × 0.3--1(--1.2) cm, both surfaces pilose or pubescent, margin densely ciliate, apex acute. Cyme terminal, spreading, lax, up to 40-flowered; bracts leaflike, ovate, 3--5 mm, both surfaces glandular pubescent. Pedicel slender, 0.5--2.5 cm, densely glandular pubescent, recurved after anthesis. Sepals oblong- or ovate-lanceolate, 5--6 mm, abaxially densely glandular pubescent, margin membranous or narrowly so. Petals obovate or obovate-oblong, shorter than to 2 × as long as sepals, apex 2-lobed. Stamens shorter than petals. Ovary ovoid, ca. 2 mm. Styles 5, linear, slightly longer than ovary. Capsule cylindric, 8--10 mm, ca. 2 × as long as calyx, 10-toothed, teeth usually recurved. Seeds brown, usually 0.4--0.8 mm in diam., tuberculate. Fl. Apr--Jun, fr. May--Jul.

Forests, forest margins, mountain slopes, hilltop grasslands, fields, sandy soils, rock crevices, roadsides; 100--4300 m. Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guizhou, Hebei, Heilongjiang, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [cosmopolitan weed].