This bushy, open to spreading (not rounded) subshrub usually less than 3-feet tall and wide has numerous hairy, reddish, woody stems. Note the hairy flowering branches with flat-topped clusters of white to pink flowers and narrow, linear leaves with folded edges even-sized up the stems.

FLOWERS: June–October. Spreading, usually flat-topped clusters of white, pink, or rose flowers, 1/8-inch long (2–3 mm); stamens longer than petals; flowers and stems thinly to densely hairy.

LEAVES: Alternate or (usually) in bundles on stem. Blade narrowly elliptic to linear, to 5/8-inch long (5–15 mm), 1/8-inch wide (2 mm), margins entire, often rolled under (revolute); bottom surface densely hairy.

HABITAT: Sandy, clay loam soils; grasslands, sagebrush, pinyon-juniper, ponderosa woodlands.

ELEVATION: 6,000–8,700 feet.

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

SIMILAR SPECIES: Narrow-leaf Buckwheat, E. leptophyllum, in much the same range, is a rounded (not spreading) subshrub with hairless flowering branches and longer leaves: blades narrow, 3/4–2 3/8-inches long (2–6 cm), margins tightly folded under (revolute), top surface hairless.

NM COUNTIES: Northern and central NM at mid-elevation habitats: Cibola, McKinley, Lincoln, Los Alamos, Quay, Rio Arriba, San Juan, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Socorro, Taos, Torrance, Valencia.