Duration: Annual
Nativity: Native
Lifeform: Forb/Herb
General: Annual herbs, 5-30 cm tall; stems erect to ascending or spreading with age, branching from base and above; herbage strigose-hispid or hirsute.
Leaves: Basal leaves often abundent, sometimes persistent until flowering; stem leaves alternate; blades narrowly spatulate, 1-7 cm long, 2-6 mm wide, the bases gradually narrowing into a winged petiole; upper leaves smaller, sessile; leaf surfaces covered with tiny glands and appressed nonglandular hairs.
Flowers: Showy, purplish, arranged in small clusters at branch tips or solitary in leaf axils; calyx divided nearly to the base into 5 lobes, the lobes linear-lanceolate, 4-7 mm long; corollas funnelform-campanulate, 8-15 mm long and nearly as wide at the top, pink, lavender, or bright purple, 5-lobed.
Fruits: Capsules contain numerous tiny seeds; seeds ellipsoid-ovoid, about 0.5 mm long and half as wide, yellowish-brown, reticulate (the surface covered in a net-vein pattern).
Ecology: Found on gravelly, rocky and sandy soils in diverse habitats, below 5,000 ft (1524 m); flowers February-June.
Distribution: s CA, s NV, s UT, AZ, s CO, NM, TX, OK; south to c MEX.
Notes: N. hispida is identifiable by being a small annual (though it can reach 30 cm tall) covered with long stiff hairs; narrow leaves that are widest near the tip, with tapering bases; wide, bell-shaped purple flowers a little over 1 cm long, with petals that are quite a bit longer than the sepals; and capsules full of tiny orangish or yellowish seeds. 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.
Ethnobotany: Used by the Navajo as a lotion for spider or tarantula bites.
Etymology: Nama comes from the Greek word nama, stream, possibly referring to the habitat of one of the first described species of the genus; hispidum means rough with bristly hairs.
Synonyms: Nama hispidum var. mentzelii, Nama hispidum var. revolutum, Nama hispidum var. spathulatum
Editor: SBuckley 2010, FSCoburn 2015, AHazelton 2017
Plant: Annual 5-15 cm; herbage pubescent
Leaves: leaves alternate, narrowly spatulate, gradually narrowing to a winged petiole, upper leaves smaller, sessile
Flowers: flowers lavender, 13-15 mm long
Fruit: a capsule.
