Plant: Perennial; Stem prostrate to erect, hairy or becoming glabrous; sap milky Leaves: cauline, opposite, short-petioled, 2-20 mm; stipules separate, thread-like; blade ovate to spoon-shaped, hairy to glabrous, tip acute, margin entire INFLORESCENCE: flower-like, generally 1 per node; involucre 1.5-2 mm, bell-shaped, hairy to glabrous; gland 0.5 mm, oblong, appendages unequal, entire to almost 0 on some glands, largest wider than gland Flowers: Staminate flowers 22-25, generally in 5 clusters around pistillate flower, each flower a stamen; Pistillate flower: 1, central, stalked; ovary chambers 3, ovule 1 per chamber, styles 3, divided to base Fruit: capsule, 2 mm, ovoid, lobed, hairy; Seed 1-1.5 mm, ovoid, white, 3-angled, transversely 4-5-ridged, ridges rounded Misc: Dry slopes; < 500 m.; Jan-Apr Notes: Flowers born in a cyanthia. 25 staminate flowers and one pistallate flower. Each cyanthia with 5 white petaloid appendages and each of those with a dark red-purple gland.Petaloid appendages up to 2mm wide or obsolete.Seeds white and encircled by 4-5 ridges. References: Kearney & Peebles; Arizona Flora. McDougall; Seed plants of Northern Arizona. ASU specimans