Grows in a tangled mass up to several feet wide and over a foot tall in a moist area or spindly and solitary in dry conditions.
A herbaceous plant arising from a woody base with green ovate to spatculate to elliptic leaves with smooth edges that are not thickened or spirally arranged.
Habitat
Semi-desert, foothills, canyons, chaparral, moist sandy areas to dry Pinyon-Juniper forests to Ponderosa and low conifer forests.
Flower Characteristics
What appears to be a flower is instead a cyathium, a cup-like structure that houses a central pistillate flower surrounded by several staminate flowers. The yellow horned structures are not true petals but merely extensions of the cyathium.
Leaf and Stem Characteristics
Leaves have no stalks and attach directly to the main stem.
Fruit and Seed Characteristics
Nodding 3-celled and 3-seeded capsule.