Duration: Annual

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Forb/Herb

General: Prostrate, diffusely branching annuals, fine to coarse, generally mealy-glandular 3-20 cm.

Leaves: Confined to compact clusters at tips of branches; blades obovate to spatulate or linear-spatulate, 2-7 mm wide, 1-2.5 cm long, narrowed to petiole equal to blade, strigose and hirsute.

Flowers: Subsessile in terminal, few-flowered cymes in axils of branches; lance linear calyx lobes, 2-3 mm long, glutinous and densely hirsute; funnelform-campanulate corolla bright lavender-pink, lobes ovate, 2 mm long.

Fruits: Ovoid capsule 3-2.5 mm long, hirsutulous.

Ecology: Found mostly among chaparral on rocky slopes and along arroyos below 3,500 ft (1067 m); flowers April-July.

Distribution: UT, AZ, se CA; south to n MEX (Baja California)

Notes: Generally forming a a dense mat.

Ethnobotany: Seeds pounded in a mortar and boiled into mush.

Etymology: Nama comes from the Greek nama for spring or stream, while demissum means hanging down.

Synonyms: None

Editor: SBuckley, 2010

Plant: annual, hairs generally dense, fine to coarse, generally mealy-glandular, bases swollen; stem prostrate, forked, 3-20 cm

Leaves: cauline, generally alternate, simple; margin entire, wavy, crenate, or rolled under

INFLORESCENCE: clusters (generally terminal, leafy) or flowers solitary or paired in axils, not coiled

Flowers: corolla salverform to bell-shaped; stamens generally attached to corolla at different levels, generally unequal, portion fused to corolla generally narrowly winged; scales at filament base 0

Fruit: capsule, generally loculicidal, ovoid to elliptic; Seeds generally many, small, reddish brown, brown, black or yellow

Misc: Sandy or gravelly flats; < 1600 m.

Notes: Leaves are narrowly spatulate or obovate.Corolla is funnelform in shape.

References: Kearney & Peebles; Arizona Flora. McDougall; Seed plants of Northern Arizona. Hickman, ed., The Jepson Manual. ASU specimans.