White or spring bartonia

Centaurella verna Michaux, Fl. Bor.-Amer. 1: 98, plate 12, fig. 2. 1803

Herbs erect, purplish or rarely yellowish, 2–23 cm. Leaves alternate or distal leaves sub­opposite, ± evenly spaced; blade 0.6–3.5 mm. Inflores­cences ± open, racemoid cymes or solitary flowers. Flowers: calyx lobed nearly to base, lobes lanceolate, 0.9–2.8 × 0.5–1.5 mm, apex obtuse to subacute; corolla white, 4.8–11 × 1.5–4 mm, lobed nearly to base, lobes narrowly spatulate-obovate to elliptic, margins usually undulate-erose, apices rounded to subacute, not mucronate; anthers sometimes coiling, yellow, 0.5–1.1 mm, apex rounded; style short and stout; stigmas decurrent along its length. Capsules dehiscent medially. 2n = 44.

Flowering winter (southernmost part of range)–spring (northward). Bogs, shores, moist savannas and meadows; 0–50 m; Ala., Fla., Ga., La., Miss., N.C., S.C., Tex.