Duration: Annual
Nativity: Native
Lifeform: Forb/Herb
General: Small annual herbs, 5-20 cm tall; stems erect, slender, usually dichotomously branched throughout; herbage glandular-puberulent and hirtellous.
Leaves: Alternate along the stems; blades usually linear, occasionally wider (narrowly oblanceloate to spatulate), 1-3 cm long, 2-5 mm wide, tapering at the base to a slender petiole.
Flowers: Small and lavender, solitary in upper leaf axils or arranged in cymes at branch tips; calyx divided nearly to the base into 5 lobes, the lobes linear to nearly spatulate, 5-10 mm long; corollas tubular-campanulate, 3-5 mm long, pale lavender with prominent dark guidelines, terminating with 5 lobes; stamens included (i.e. shorter than the corolla).
Fruits: Capsules oblong, 4 mm long, each containing about 60 seeds; seeds less than 1 mm long, oblong, deeply and regularly pitted.
Ecology: Found on open slopes, often in gravelly soils, from 5,000-8,000 ft (1524-2438 m), flowers August-October.
Distribution: CO, NM, AZ, TX; south to MEX and S. Amer.
Notes: The genus Nama has at different times been placed in Hyrophyllaceae (the water-leaf family) and Boraginaceae (the borage family), so you may need to check both families before finding it in reference books and herbarium cabinets. N. dichotomum is a delicate annual with narrow leaves and small, bell-shaped or tube-shaped white to lavender flowers. The stem branching pattern is dichotomous, meaning a stem will split evenly into 2 branches and then those each of those branches will split evenly into 2 more branches. Distinguish it from other Namas by the dichotomous branching pattern (though smaller individuals may not branch at all); glandular viscid stems and leaves (use your hand lens); and small flowers, only about 1/2 cm long, with petals about the same length as the glandular calyx lobes. Watch for it during the summer rainy season.
Ethnobotany: Unknown
Etymology: Nama comes from the Greek word nama, stream, possibly referring to the habitat of one of the first described species of the genus; dichotomum means forked in pairs, referrring to the pattern of branching on the stems.
Editor: SBuckley 2011, AHazelton 2017
