Botanical name: Spergularia rubra    Family: Caryophyllaceae (Carnation family)

Purple Sand Spurry is a plant native to Europe and Asia, and it is present on other continents, including North and South America and Australia, as an introduced species and in many areas a common weed. It is an annual, or sometimes perennial, herb producing a slender, glandular stem up to about 25 cm long. It is lined with slightly fleshy linear or threadlike leaves each under 2 cm long. The leaves may be tipped with hard points or spines, and they are accompanied by shiny white lance-shaped stipules. Flowers occur in the leaf axils and at the tips of the stems. They have hairy, glandular sepals and five round-oval pink petals. Sepals are lanceshaped, 3-4.5 mm. Petals are uniformly pink, obovate, equaling or shorter than sepals. Stamens are 5 or 10. Capsule is 4-5 mm, nearly equaling calyx. Flowering: May-July.

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The flower labeled Purple Sand Spurry is ...