Plants annual. Stems erect, simple or branched at base, 5.5-30 cm, shaggy, hairs silvery, spreading-ascending; small axillary tufts of leaves absent. Leaves not marces-cent; blade 4-15(-20) × 1.5-5(-7) mm, pubescence of long, glandular and/or eglandular hairs; basal ± crowded, blade oblanceolate, spatulate, apex obtuse; cauline sessile, blade lanceolate or elliptic, apex acute. Inflorescences lax, dichasiate, 3-30-flowered cymes; bracts herbaceous, lanceolate, densely pubescent, with long, ascending, glandular or eglandular hairs. Pedicels erect or ascending, bent distally in fruit, 6-15 mm, longer than capsule, shaggy, glandular or eglandular. Flowers: sepals lanceolate, 4-4.5 mm, foliaceous, with or without narrow margins, densely pubescent, hairs exceeding sepal tips; petals oblanceolate, 2-3 mm, ca. 0.5 times as long as sepals, apex 2-fid, sparsely ciliate proximally; stamens 10, with few long hairs near filament base; styles 5. Capsules cylindric, slightly curved near apex, 5-7 mm, ca. 1.5 times as long as sepals; teeth 10, erect, margins convolute. Seeds pale brown, 0.5 mm diam., acutely tuberculate; testa not inflated. 2n = 72 (Europe), 88, 90. Flowering spring. Dry, sandy places, roadsides, arable land, disturbed, open areas; 0-400 m; introduced; Ala., Ark., Fla., Ga., Idaho, Ill., Ind., Kans., Ky., Miss., Mo., N.Y., N.C., Ohio, Okla., Oreg., Pa., S.C., Tenn., Tex., Va., W.Va.; Eurasia. The wholly herbaceous bracts of Cerastium brachypetalum distinguish it from C. fontanum subsp. vulgare, C. semidecandrum, and C. pumilum; the ciliate petal and filament bases distinguish it from C. diffusum and C. glomeratum. Cerastium brachypetalum differs from all those species in the long, silvery hairs that give it a grayish appearance. In Europe C. brachypetalum is more variable and eight subspecies have been recognized, two of which-subsp. brachypetalum and subsp. tauricum-occur in North America. However, they differ only in the absence or presence of glandular hairs, an insufficient distinction for recognition at the subspecific level.