Flower:

Small clusters of stalked flowers at branch tips and arising singly from leaf axils along branching stems. Flowers are about ¼ inch across with 5 oval petals, pink to lavender but paler at the base. In the center are 6 to 10 yellow-tipped stamens and a 3-parted style.

Surrounding the base of the flower, alternating with the petals, are 5 sepals that are narrower and about as long as the petals with thin, translucent edging. Sepals and flower stalks are covered in glandular hairs.

Leaves and stems:

Leaves are opposite, or whorled in groups of 3 to 5 irregularly spaced around the stem and may be clustered on one side. Leaves are toothless, hairless, stalkless, up to about ½ inch long, linear tapering to a pointed tip, often with a short spine or hair-like extension at the apex. At the base of the leaf cluster is a pair of appendages (stipules) that are thin, silvery white, lance-shaped with a long taper to a slender tip, and up to about ¼ inch long. Stems are branched from the base, mostly sprawling creating mats, and variously covered in glandular hairs though often smooth on the lower stem.

Fruit:

Fruit is an oval capsule about as long as the persistent sepals, containing many small reddish to dark brown seeds.

Notes:

Red Sand Spurrey is an occasional roadside weed but likely under-reported in the state, possibly overlooked due to its tiny size. It is not likely to be confused with any other species in Minnesota; its short stature (when sprawling rarely much more than a few inches tall), clustered leaf arrangement, conspicuous stipules, and glandular hairs should distinguish it from other species with small, pink, 5-petaled flowers. A related species, Salt-marsh Sand Spurrey (Spergularia salina or S. marina), not known to be in Minnesota but present in surrounding states, has flowers with fewer than 6 stamens, leaves mostly opposite without spine at the tip, and less conspicuous stipules.