Delicate stems to 14 inches tall branch diffusely with terminal clusters of white to pale-blue or lavender, 1/2-inch wide, star-shaped flowers. Note the woolly hair covering the folaige and flower cluster, the small, funnel-shaped flowers with spreading petals, and the needle-tipped leaves.

FLOWER: May–July. Compact, woolly clusters of funnel-shaped flowers have 5 spreading blue to white petals, each 1/8–1/4-inch long (3–5 mm), and a white to yellow throat.

LEAVES: Basal and alternate on stem. Blades needle-like, 3/8–1 1/4-inches long (1–3 cm); surfaces sparsely woolly.

HABITAT: Dry sandy, gravelly soils, foothills, open areas, roadsides; desert grasslands and scrub, sagebrush shrublands, pinyon-juniper woodland.

ELEVATION: 4,000–7,500 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CA, CO, NM, NV, TX, UT.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Two Bluebowls, Giliastrum acerosum and G. rigidulum, and Nutthall’s Phlox, Leptosiphon nuttallii, do not have dense, woolly flower clusters.

NM COUNTIES: Southern 1/2 and central  NM in low- to mid-elevation, dry habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Chaves, Dona Ana, Grant, Hidalgo, Los Alamos, Luna, Otero, Rio Arriba, San Juan, Sandoval, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Valencia.