One or several branched or unbranched stems 1–10 inches tall bear a rounded cluster of small white flowers. Note the flowers have 4 petals, and the leaves and stem are covered with branched, star-shaped hairs (use lens).

FLOWER: February–May. Rounded, hairy clusters have 10–50 flowers; each flower is on a densely hairy stalk and has 4 small, oval, white petals. Cluster elongates in fruit with pods alternating below the flowers. Fruit is a narrow, flat, hairy pod 1/4–1/2 inch long (6–12 mm).

LEAVES: Crowded basally, few or none alternate on lower portion of stem. Blades oblong with pointed tip and narrow base, 3/4–1 3/8 inches long (1–3.5 cm); margins entire or slightly toothed near the tip; surfaces covered with star-shaped hairs (use lends).

HABITAT: Sandy, gravelly, clay soils; arroyos, floodplains, mesas, foothills, prairies, rocky outcrops, disturbed areas; desert scrub and grasslands, pinyon-juniper woodlands.

ELEVATION: 3,600–7,200 feet.

RANGE: AR, AZ, CA, CO, OK, NE, KS, NM, NV, TX, UT.

SIMILAR SPECIES: White Whitlow-wort, D. repans, in northern and cent. NM, has hairless flower clusters and pods; the cluster does not elongate in fruit so the pods mature into an erect cluster at the stem tip.

NM COUNTIES: Bernalillo, Catron, Chaves, Cibola, Dona Ana, Eddy, Grant, Hidalgo, Lincoln, Luna, McKinley, Otero, Rio Arriba, Roosevelt, San Juan, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Torrance.