Herbs, perennial, 5-10 dm. Stems erect to ascending or sprawling, sparsely pubescent. Leaves opposite; blade ovate, 3-6 × 2-4 cm, apex rounded to acute, pubescent. Inflorescences: panicles 1.5-4 dm; bracts and bracteoles 1/2-1/3 as long as tepals. Flowers pedicellate; tepals whitish to stramineous, ovate, 1-1.3 mm, apex acute, densely lanate. Utricles included in tepals, greenish, ovoid, 0.8 mm, apex acute. Seeds 0.6 mm.
Flowering summer. Sheltered ravines, canyons, pastures; 1400-2000 m; Ariz., N.Mex., Tex.; Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Nuevo León, Sonora).
Duration: Perennial
Nativity: Native
Lifeform: Forb/Herb
General: Perennial herbs, 50-100 cm tall, from slender rootstock; stems erect to ascending or sprawling, sparsely pubescent.
Leaves: Opposite and petiolate, the blades variable, papery-thin and dusty green, broadly rhombic to ovate with acute to rounded tips, glabrous above and scabrous on margins and veins of lower surface.
Flowers: Whitish, in dense, narrow terminal panicles, 10-40 cm long and 3-10 cm wide; flowers small, the tepals 5, ovate, covered in wooly hairs.
Fruits: Utricles ovoid, greenish, indehiscent, held within tepals; seeds orbicular-lenticular, red-brown, shiny, 0.6 mm.
Ecology: Found in ravines, canyons, and pastures, from 4,500-7,000 ft (1372-2134 m); flowers September-February.
Distribution: AZ, NM, TX; south to n MEX(Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Nuevo Le-n, Sonora).
Notes: Find this slender perennial herb in wet areas at middle elevations in extreme southern Arizona. Look for the small white tufts of the flowers and the opposite, papery-thin leaves.
Ethnobotany: Unknown
Etymology: Iresine is derived from a Greek work meaning woolly, while heterophylla means many different leaves.
Synonyms: None
Editor: LCrumbacher 2011, AHazelton 2015
