Branching, trailing stems, often red in arid conditions, are covered with whorls of succulent leaves and tiny, yellow to coppery-colored flowers. Note the tufts of long, white hairs in the leaf nodes and around the flowers.

FLOWER: March–November. Solitary or in small clusters at stem tips, 5 small yellow to copper petals, 1/8-inch long (2–3 mm), surrounded by a whorl of leaves and long, white hairs; sepals turn reddish and remain after the petals fall.

LEAVES: Alternate and whorled around flowers. Blades yellowish-green, succulent, cylindrical to linear, 1/8–5/8-inch long (4–15 mm). Leaf nodes tufted with conspicuous long, white hairs.

HABITAT: Sandy, gravelly soils, deserts, foothills, floodplains, disturbed areas; desert grasslands and scrub, creosote-mesquite brushlands, blue grama grasslands, pinyon-juniper, ponderosa-oak woodlands.

ELEVATION: 4,300–7,300 feet.

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

SIMILAR SPECIES: Shaggy Purslane, P. pilosa, also has hairy leaf nodes but has red flowers. Common Purslane, P. oleracea, introduced as a pot herb, has larger yellow flowers but not hairy leaf nodes.

NM COUNTIES: Widespread in low- to mid-elevation, arid habitats: Bernalillo, Chaves, Cibola, Curry, Dona Ana, Eddy, Grant, Harding, Hidalgo, Los Alamos, Luna, McKinley, Mora, Otero, Quay, Rio Arriba, Roosevelt, San Juan, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Torrance.