Plants perennial. Stems ascending to semierect, slightly to moderately branched, elongate, glandular-pubescent to viscid. Leaves: petiole 0.5-4 cm; blade ovate to elliptic, 2-5 × 1.5-3.5 cm, margins entire or occasionally ± repand and slightly undulate, surfaces glandular-puberulent. Inflorescences: peduncle longer than subtending petiole; bracts ovate to elliptic, 7-13 × 4-6 mm, papery, glandular-pubescent; flowers 20-75. Perianth: tube pink to magenta, 18-32 mm, limb magenta, 8-10 mm diam. Fruits broadly turbinate or cordate in profile, 8-15 × 6-12 mm, 0.7-2 times as long as wide, scarious, with a low, conic, inconspicuous beak at apex; wings 5, often twisted, usually smooth, occasionally rugose, not reticulate veined at apex, without cavities .

Flowering spring, opportunistically after summer rains. Sand dunes; of conservation concern; 100 m; Tex.

Abronia macrocarpa is on the United States endangered species list; and it is in the Center for Plant Conservation´s National Collection of Endangered Plants.