Common Name: alkali heath

Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Subshrub

General: Salt-tolerant subshrubs or shrubs, usually about 30 cm tall; stems erect, much branching, scabro-puberulent.

Leaves: Opposite and fascicled in crowded clusters along the branchlets; blades linear, pointed, 3-5 mm long, with revolute (curled up) margins; mostly glabrous.

Flowers: White, mostly sessile in leaf axils; calyx a ribbed, 5-lobed tube, 4-5 mm long; petals 5, white, about twice as long as the calyx.

Fruits: Capsule linear, angled, about 5 mm long, enclosed in the calyx; containing 2-several seeds.

Ecology: Found on plains and hills, and on dunes around salt flats and lakes, often in desertscrub communities; primarily associated with gypsum deposits; from 4,000-6,500 ft (1372-2134 m); flowers April-August.

Distribution: CO, NM, TX; south to MEX.

Notes: This low, heath-like shrub is likely an obligate gypsophile. It has an ususual patchy distribution, being found in a few discrete gypsum-rich areas throughout New Mexico and Colorado. Easily mistaken for Linanthus pungens (=Leptodactylon pungens) with its clusters of short, pointed, narrow leaves and white 5-petaled flowers; however, the flowers of F. jamesii have 5 separate petals, while L. pungens has petals fused into a 1-2 cm long tube, topped with 5 spreading lobes. Also, if you look closely you'll see that the clusters of leaves are alternate along the branches in L. pungens, while they are opposite in F. jamesii.

Ethnobotany: Unknown

Etymology: Frankenia is named for Johannes Franckenius (1590-1661), Swedish professor of medicine and botany; jamesii honors Edwin P. James (1797-1861), a botanist, geographer, and geologist who explored the American West.

Synonyms: None

Editor: AHazelton 2017