Tiny pink flowers bud from slender stems on erect to sprawling, hairy stalks 8–14-inches tall and with numerous upper branches and broad, hairy leaves. Note the spike-like, loose clusters of tiny flowers and hairless flower cluster stems and hairless fruits (use lens).

FLOWERS: Summer, fall. Tiny flowers with 1/16-inch long (1.5 mm), pink to white petals are clustered along sides and ends of slender stems with 1-4 unequal, hairless branches that arise from leaf nodes. Fruits oval, 3/32-inch long (2.5 mm), with rounded tip, 5 broad ribs, and hairless (use lens).

LEAVES: Opposite on petioles (stems) reaching 1 3/8-inches (35 mm) long. Blade oblong to lance-shaped with basal leaves largest, 3/4-1 3/4 inch (18-45 mm) long; surfaces hairy and often dotted with brown warty glands visible with 10X hand lens, margins wavy.

HABITAT: Sandy, gravelly, loam soils; desert grasslands and scrub.

ELEVATION: 4,000-6,200 feet.

RANGE: AZ, NM, TX, UT.

SIMILAR SPECIES: The 11 species of Boerhavia in NM are all variable and can be difficult to distinguish in the field, with seeds and 10X hand lens usually required. Scarlet Spiderling, B. coccinea, in southern NM (see photo), generally has dense clusters of dark red flowers on hairy stems; B. triquetra (southern NM) has flowers attached at one point in rounded, umbrella-shaped cluster.

NM COUNTIES: SW quarter of NM in low- to mid-elevation, arid habitats.