Loose clumps (not mats) can have up to 80 stems from  2–24 inches tall and covered with small white flowers. Note the flowers have 5 white, oval petals and 10 showy stamens with pinkish anthers. The leaves are opposite and elliptical to lance-shaped. Flora of North America considers the highly variable species “morphologically diverse in serious need of comprehensive study.”  NM has 4 recognizable phases with slightly different features. The higher elevation specimens have more compact mat-like clumps and shorter stems.

FLOWER: June–September. Flat-topped clusters have flowers with 5 green, pointed sepals and 5 white, oval petals, each about 1/4 inch long (5 mm); 10 arching stamens have white filaments and pinkish anthers; the style is split into 3 slender lobes.

LEAVES: Opposite. Blades elliptic to linear-lance-shaped, to 1 3/8 inches long (35 mm) by 5/8 inch wide (14 mm); surfaces covered with minute hairs, margins entire with ciliate hairs, the tip blunt to pointed; the bottom has a prominent center vein.

HABITAT: Dry rocky, sandy, loamy soils; talus slopes, dry meadows, forest understory, montane scrub; pinyon-juniper woodlands, ponderosa-oak-Douglas fir, spruce-aspen-fir forests.

ELEVATION: 5,600–10,900 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CA, CO, NM, NV, UT, TX; scattered across Southern states.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Fendler’s Sandwort,  Eremogone  fendleri, in much the same range, forms a dense mat with grass-like leaves.

NM COUNTIES: Widespread in NM mountains and foothills in mid- to  high-elevation, dry habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, Colfax, Dona Ana, Eddy, Grant, Harding, Hidalgo, Lincoln, Los Alamos, Luna, McKinley, Mora, Otero, Rio Arriba, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance, Union, Valencia.