Herbs annual, biennial, or perennial. Stems decumbent or ascending, pale purplish, 10--30 cm tall, sparsely branched at base, with 1(or 2) lines of hairs. Basal leaves long petiolate, distal leaves sessile or shortly petiolate; leaf blade broadly ovate to ovate-orbicular, 0.8--2.5 × (0.5--)1--1.5 cm, base narrowed or cordate, apex acuminate or acute. Flowers in sparse terminal or axillary cymes. Pedicel 0.7--1.4 cm, elongate and nodding after anthesis, slender, with 1 line of hairs. Sepals 5, ovate-lanceolate or ovate-oblong, ca. 2--2.5 or 4 mm, outside glandular pubescent, margin broadly membranous, apex slightly obtuse or nearly rounded. Petals oblong, shorter than or subequaling sepals, 2-cleft nearly to base; lobes nearly linear. Stamens 3--5, shorter than petals. Styles 3, linear. Capsule ovoid, slightly longer than persistent sepals, 6-valved. Seeds numerous, red-brown, ovoid to compressed globose, 1--1.2 mm in diam., semiglobose-tuberculate or curved reticulate. Fl. Jun--Jul, fr. Jul--Aug. 2n = 40, 42, 44.

Fields. Anhui, Fujian, Gansu, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hebei, Henan, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu, Jiangxi, Jilin, Liaoning, Nei Mongol, Ningxia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shandong, Shanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Xizang, Yunnan, Zhejiang [Afghanistan, Bhutan, India, Japan, Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Sikkim; Europe].