nodding chickweed

Appearance

General: Glandular-pubescent annual with 1 to several simple or basally branched, decumbent to erect stems 5-20 cm. long.
Leaves: Leaves opposite, the basal and lower cauline spatulate to oblanceolate, 7-25 mm. long, broadly short-petiolate; cauline leaves several pairs, linear-lanceolate to ovate, sessile.
Flowers: Flowers several in a loose, leafy, bracteate cyme; pedicles slender, 5-20 mm. long, spreading to ascending by sharply deflexed near the tip; sepals 5, 3-5 mm. long; petals white, from slightly shorter to half again as long as the sepals, sometimes lacking; styles 5, distinct to the base, opposite the sepals; stamens 10.
Fruits: Capsule cylindric, 2-3 times as long as the calyx.

Distribution

Occurring on both sides of the Cascades in Washington; Alaska south to Oregon, south in the Rocky Mountains to New Mexico and Arizona, east to the Atlantic Coast.

Habitat

Dry to moist banks and woodlands.