Slender stems are much branched at base and above, spreading horizontally, then becoming upright; brownish; plant covered with stiff, straight hairs; roots rarely reddish-purple.
Slender-stemmed, much-branched, bristly, mostly decending with tips ascending; flowers white, in 1-sided spikes, curl like a scorpion tail; sepals not bent; nutlets 4, roughened, dark, 1 larger, covered in bumps, style extends beyond the nutlet.
Habitat
Found in gravelly or rocky soil on hillsides, along washes, creosote desert communities, desert woodlands, and on disturbed soil below 4,000 feet.
Flower Characteristics
White, numerous short, paired, 2-rowed, scorpioid spikes (like a scorpion's tail), these elongating in fruit; flower gradually widens outward from base, shaped like a funnel with yellow appendages; covered with rough, stiff, spreading hairs.
Leaf and Stem Characteristics
Stalkless leaves up to 1-1/2 inches long, clustered at the base and scattered alternately along slender stems; the hairs on the leaves and stems are rough and stiff and have a bulb-like attachment at the base.
Fruit and Seed Characteristics
4 nutlets, usually brown or pale gray, covered with bumps; 1 nutlet larger than others; style (female flower part) from the ovary usually surpassing all nutlets in length.