It is native to the western United States, where it grows in wet habitat with granite sand substrate, including riverbanks and barren seeps.

This is a small annual herb forming dense clumps of hair-thin stems no more than about 6 centimeters high.

The inflorescence is made up of one to seven tiny flowers atop each stem.

The flowers have a few greenish to pink or red segments no more than about 3 millimeters long.

This Poales-related article is a stub.