Brown's description is: "A slender annual, 11/2 to 6 inches high, sometimes with a single stem, but usually with 3 to many stems to a root, erect, slender, roughly hairy with spreading (not deflexed) hairs on the basal part for 1/4 to 1/2 of the total height. Leaves alternate or opposite, usually extending ? to 1/2 way up the stems, 1-9 lines long, 1/2-2 lines broad, the lower mostly obovate or spathulate oblanceolate, passing into lanceolate or linear on the upper part of the stems, all more or less pubescent with spreading hairs on both sides or the uppermost glabrous, usually wavy, with the margins very distinctly thickened or hardened and scabrid (not smooth), sometimes toothed. Pedicels 1 to 21/4 in. long, glabrous. Calyx 3 to 4 (rarely 5)-lobed, glabrous. Tube ellipsoid in fruit and 11/2 to 2 lines long; lobes erect, 1/2-3/4 line long, linear or deltoid-linear, subacute. Corolla very small, 3 to 4 (rarely 5)-lobed . . . with a cylindric tube 3/4 to 1 line long and lanceolate acute lobes 3/4 to 1 line long. Wahlenbergia gracilis var. capillaris Hook. f. Fl. N.Z. vol. 1, (1853), and Handbk. N.Z. Fl. p. 170 (1864). A native of New Zealand. This is similar in appearance to W. quadrifida, but differs by its stems being more hairy, with shorter spreading hairs, by the scabrid margins of the leaves and the shorter and more ellipsoid ovary and capsule."

n = 36

2n = 72

Habit of radicate group. Stems 10- 50 cm long, 1-2 mm thick, decumbent or ascending or stiffly erect. Mature leaves and bracts pale-green, alternate, sessile, variable, usually obovatespathulate to oblanceolate on lower stem, grading to linear-lanceolate in upper stem, 8 × 2 to 30 × 10 mm; margins flat and distantly denticulate to strongly undulate, usually with scattered hairs on margins and lamina. Callus teeth 4—5 on each margin. Pedicels slender, 3—10 cm long. Flowers glabrous, 3—5-lobed, pastel lilac at anthesis, fading to off-white or pure white in different populations, (5-) 10-15(-20) mm diam., 4—9 mm long. Corolla rotate with shallow saucer-shaped tube, 1 × 3-4 mm; lobes spreading, 5 × 4 to 8 × 5 mm, broadly ovate, touching or overlapping in open flower. Style thickened at top, white. Calyx lobes glabrous, 1.5 × 1 to 3 × 1.5 mm, triangular; capsule glabrous 5—7 × 4 mm, ellipsoid to obconic, with protruding apical valves. Bud at anther dehiscence short and rounded. Self-fertile. Seeds 0.5 mm long. FL Nov—Apr, FT Dec—Mar.