It has a very short stem which is repeatedly subdivided, with a pair of very small leaves and a single white flower at each fork and at the end of the branches.

[6][10][7] They are very small,[7][9] only 1.5–2 mm (0–0 in) long and dull green or slightly glaucous, often tinged with purple and quite glabrous (hairless).

[8] They have one-vein,[3] and have transparent (or hyaline) margins that appear ragged due to the presence of minute teeth or lobes along the edges.

[22] The genus name of Radiola is derived from the Latin word radius meaning a ray, because the cells of the ripe capsule diverge like a little wheel.

[9] In southern England, it can also be found on the margins of fishponds, fields or abandoned meadows and old sand pits,[6] and moist, boggy places in Devon.

[5][3] Near the coast, it is found in dune slacks,[6][31] sandy grassland, on machair, and in soil-filled rock cracks,[29] or rocky outcrops.

[5] In Britain, it is generally found in acidic grasslands and heathlands,[2] on grassy cliff slopes, along the rutted (broken) edges of tracks, beside woodland rides and firebreaks, at the edges of ponds, in sandy grassland, machair (low-lying grassy plains) and dune slacks and in soil-filled rock crevices (Wilmore 2002;[32] Chater 2010;[33] Rand & Mundell 2011).

[3] Radiola linoides is a plant of sparsely vegetated, damp, infertile, moderately acid peaty, gravelly or sandy soils, often found in draw-down zones or where there has been some poaching by livestock.

[37] It grows in Poland, with other damp loving plants such as Cyperus flavescens, Centunculus minimus and Illecebrum verticillatum.

[28] Across Europe, R. linoides is also associated with annual-rich west Mediterranean siliceous grassland, the fumaroles of Pantelleria in Sicily, Juncus bufonius dominated communities with Centunculus minimus and Centaurium pulchellum, and temporarily inundated small herb communities with associates including Elatine spp., Damasonium bourgaei and Samolus valerandi (Anon 2013).

[38] In the Netherlands, R. linoides was recorded from fields that are filled with water during the winter months and then frozen for ice skating.

[16] The seeds of R. linoides are able to survive in the soil, even after general situation conditions have become unsuitable for mature plants to establish in the above-ground vegetation (Plassmann et al. 2009).

R. linoides is therefore capable of opportunistically colonising areas from the seed bank when suitable conditions (e.g. bare, damp, open ground) become available, although it is not known how long the seed remains viable if unsuitable conditions continue for an extended or prolonged period of time (i.e. more than five years).

[12] Radiola linoides has been recorded as a host for Melampsora lini, a fungal pathogen responsible for rust disease on flax and linseed plants.

(Lawrence et al. 2007)[41] Up to 1930, the population of R. linoides within the United Kingdom, went through a sharp decline in numbers of plants.