This low-growing plant of weedy habitats reaches 6–16-inches tall with branching, spreading stems with long, spreading hairs, short hairs, or no hairs. Note the bisexual flower spikes grow only from the branch tips with the spike of reddish male flowers separate and above the thread-like female flowers.

FLOWER: April–November. Look closely at the erect spike crowded with reddish to yellowish flowers. The spike of tiny, reddish flowers on the upper portion are males with white to yellowish stamens and minute bracts beneath each flower. Female flowers on the bottom portion have short but conspicuous thread-like red stigmas and large, leaf-like bracts with 6 large, pointed teeth beneath each flower. Fruit on the female flowers develop in smooth, three-lobed capsules.

LEAVES: Alternate. Blades elliptic to lance-shaped, 3/4–1 5/8-inches long (20–40 mm); bases rounded, tips pointed, margins sharply toothed, surfaces with few hairs.

HABITAT: Dry sandy soils of slopes, arroyos, canyons, roadsides, disturbed areas; grasslands, pinyon-juniper, cottonwood woodlands.

ELEVATION: 3,400–6,800 feet.

RANGE: AZ, NM, TX.

SIMILAR SPECIES: The annual New Mexico Copperleaf, A. neomexicana, in the southern and western NM, has male spikes on short side shoots and female flowers on branch tips.

NM COUNTIES: In the southern half of NM in low-elevation, dry habitats: Catron, Chaves, Dona Ana, Eddy, Grant, Hidalgo, Lincoln,  Otero, Sierra, Socorro.