Annual, yellowish green, prostrate, hairy, spreading herb. Stem and branches with 3-9 mm long internodes, with short spreading hairs. Leaves opposite, sessile, hirsute, blade narrow elliptic to lanceolate or oblanceolate, usually 4-7 mm long (rarely upto 11 mm) and 1.5-2.3 mm wide, acute, margins entire with straight spreading hairs; stipules minute, membranous. Infloresence dense, leaf-opposed, cymose cluster of 6-10 flowers. Flowers green, pentamerous 1.6-2.3 mm long, sessile, perigynous zone and lower part of sepals densely covered, with short uncinate hairs. Sepals 5,free, unequal, 2 outer 1.5-2 mm long, narrow oblong, obtuse, 3 inner short, lanceolate, acute. Petals 5, free, setaceous. Stamens 2, free, opposite the two outer large sepals, anthers oblong. Style minute, bilobed, stigmas 2, divergent. Fruit ovate-ellipsoid, somewhat acute, papillose near the apex. Seed shining black, erect, obovate, testa crustaceous.
The root system is pivotal. Stem ascending, branched from the very base, grayish-green from short whitish hairs. Leaves are opposite, lanceolate or oblong-oval, entire, pointed, on short petioles, pubescent, gray-green. The flowers are collected in loose or contiguous glomeruli, the petals are white, the calyx is gray-green, rough with white hairs.The leaves are hairy and completely cover the stems that are prostrate in the substrate.It is native to the Mediterranean region. In Spain it is found in Alicante, Barcelona, Castellón, the Balearic Islands, Lérida, Tarragona and Valencia where it grows in fields and roadsides with dry soils.
This plant is useful.
How to get rid of:
Dig the beds with a pitchfork. This will prevent you from cutting the rhizomes of perennial weeds. And with a shovel, do it for sure. And the more small pieces remain in the soil, the more weeds will grow next year.
