Japan Flora: Glabrous, fleshy annual; stems erect, 10-30 cm. long, usually tufted, branched at base; basal leaves fleshy, rosulate, lanceolate or linear-oblong, 15-2.5 cm. long, 3-5 mm. wide, obtuse, with few obscure parallel nerves, sessile, the cauline leaves gradually smaller, narrowly oblong, 1-3 mm. long, erect or appressed, very obtuse; pedicels axillary in the upper nodes, solitary, 0-1 cm. long; calyx about 15 mm. long, deeply 5-cleft, the lobes obtuse; corolla purple, 5-6 mm. long; capsules globose, much longer than the calyx, 2.5-3 mm. long; seeds ovoid, reticulate, about 0.2 mm. in diameter. Aug.-Oct. Wet places in lowlands.

Honshu, Shikoku, Kyu­shu. Ryukyus, Formosa, China, and India