Erect, single stems covered with short, bristly hairs and with upper branches reach 2-feet tall. Basal and stem leaves are fern-like and the branches are tipped with large, rounded clusters of small, white flowers. The flower head elongates in fruit above egg-shaped, oval seeds on spreading stalks. Note the pinnately lobed basal leaves with pointed lobes and the similar smaller stem leaves.

FLOWER: March–October. Dense rounded clusters on branch tips have 1/8–1/4 inch wide (4–6 mm) flowers with 4 white, rounded petals and 6 stamens. Small, flat, oval fruits (silicles) have a slightly notched tips and a tiny protruding style, and mature on spreading pedicles along the stem beneath the flower cluster.

LEAVES: Basal rosette and smaller, similar alternate stem leaves. Blades pinnate with 3–8 pairs of lobes along the midrib; lobes have divided to entire margins and pointed tips.

HABITAT: Sandy, gravelly soils; desert hills, oak savannas, drainages, old fields, roadsides, disturbed areas; desert grasslands and scrub, pinyon-juniper, ponderosa-oak woodlands.

ELEVATION: 4,300–8,400 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CA, NM, TX.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Virginia Pepperweed, L. virginicum, nearly statewide, has only 2 stamens, circular seeds, serrated mid-stem leaves, and basal rosette leaves that wither by booming.

NM COUNTIES: Southwest quarter of NM in low- to mid-elevation, dry habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Dona Ana, Grant, Hidalgo, Luna, Otero, Sierra, Socorro.