A small, low, tufted perennial, smooth or somewhat pubescent, 5 to 10 inches high. Basal leaves spatulate or oblanceolate, blunt and short petioled, but not ciliate. Stem leaves opposite, linear-oblong, usually pointed at the apex and one-nerved, one-half to 1 inch long. Flowers pale purple, pinkish or nearly white, in corymbed, cymose clusters. Calyx with five very slender lobes. Corolla about one-fourth of an inch long, with five pointed lobes which, when expanded, are somewhat more than one-eighth of an inch across, each lobe about one-third the length of the corolla tube. Fruit a small, globular capsule.

In dry, open or rocky places, Maine to Saskatchewan, south to Georgia and Missouri. Flowering from June to September.

The Fringed Houstonia (Houstonia ciliolata Torrey) is similar but the margins of the leaves are conspicuously ciliate.

Memoir 15 N. Y. State Museum

Plate 194

B. Long-Leaved Houstonia - Houstonin longifolia