Look for this salt-tolerant herb where evaporating water concentrates mineral salts in the surface layers and creates alkaline soils. Branching, erect to trailing stems 1–2 feet long (10–60 cm) spread by rhizomes to form sprawling clumps. Note the hairless, fleshy leaves and stems, and the flower clusters with coiled tips along the stem ends. The tiny, trumpet-shaped, white flowers have yellow or purple throats.

FLOWER: May–September. Dense clusters form coiled arrays with double rows of flowers along one side of the branch ends; flowers 1/4–3/8 inch wide (6–9 mm) have 5 white lobes and yellow or purple throats.

LEAVES: Alternate. Blades green to glaucous, succulent, narrowly elliptic to lance-shaped, 3/5–3 inches long (2–8 cm), 1/8–3/4 inch wide (3–18 mm); surfaces hairless, margins entire, tips blunt to pointed.

HABITAT: Moist sandy, clay, alkaline soils; lake shores, ditches, river banks, drainages, disturbed areas; alkali flats, badlands, wetlands, desert scrub, grasslands.

ELEVATION: 3,320–8,500 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CA, CO, NM, NV, UT, TX, WA; widespread in all states west of Mississippi River, uncommon in Gulf Coast states; native from Canada to Argentina.

SIMILAR SPECIES: NM has two varieties: var. curassavicum, with slightly succulent, slender leaves, widespread in desert scrub and grasslands; var. obovatum, with very succulent, oval leaves, scattered in northern and central NM. Fragrant Heliotrope, Euploca greggii, in the se fourth of NM, favors seasonally flooded areas and has hairy, narrow, linear to lance-shaped leaves. Phlox Heliotrope, Euploca convolvulacea, has large, 5/8–1-inch wide, white flowers.

NM COUNTIES: Widespread in NM low- to mid-elevation, moist habitats: Bernalillo, Carton, Chaves, Cibola, Colfax, Dona Ana, Eddy, Harding, Hidalgo, Lea, McKinley, Mora, Otero, Quay, Rio Arriba, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Sierra, Socorro, Union, Valencia.