| Author | Rafinesque | |
| Distribution | Throughout the Sandhills, and in most counties southeastward to the coast. Ranges north only to Harnett and Moore counties. A specimen from Stanly County in the lower Piedmont (Ahles 19866 GAS) is actually L. racemulosa.
This is a Southern Coastal Plain species, ranging north to southern NC and south to southern FL and west to MS. | |
| Abundance | Frequent to common in the Sandhills region; fairly common to locally common eastward to the southern coast. | |
| Habitat | This species essentially requires sandy soil, growing in various pine/scrub oak sandhills habitats, sandy clearings, and drier parts of pine flatwoods. It also can be found in loamy sand soil of bean dips. | |
| Phenology | Blooms from July to August, and fruits from August to October. | |
| Identification | This is a rather sprawling, bushy-looking Lechea, growing only to about 1-1.5 feet tall, often broader than tall. The many branches are wide-spreading, not so strictly virgate-ascending as in most Lechea species. The stem is slender and somewhat appressed pubescent. All leaves are linear, as narrow as any other pinweed species; most are only about 1/4-inch long. The tiny flowers are widely scattered on the outer parts of the branches, as opposed to clustered as in many pinweeds. The flower stalks are nearly sessile, hence the scientific name. The dried corolla is usually persistent at the base of the capsule until it opens. There are a few other characters with the capsule shape to separate it from other species; check keys for more details. As mentioned above, it has a visual aspect of a sprawling, bushy plant with spreading branches and very narrow leaves. | |
| Taxonomic Comments | Older references named this species as L. patula.
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| Other Common Name(s) | None | |
| State Rank | S4 | |
| Global Rank | G5 | |
| State Status | | |
| US Status | | |
| USACE-agcp | | |
| USACE-emp | | |
