Shrubs, perennial, ± 0.3-1 m; rootstock stout. Stems erect or clambering, much-branched from rootstock, mostly glabrous. Leaves: petiole 0.5-2 cm; blade somewhat hastately lobed, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, 2-4.5 × 0.5-1.7 cm, base long-tapering, apex acute to acuminate or rounded-mucronate. Inflorescences compact panicles of few terminal or axillary spikes near the tips, becoming more open in fruit, units less than 10 mm diam. Flowers: tepals whitish with reddish base, striate, drying tan, darker in middle, ± equal, 4-5 mm, rather rigid, glabrous or occasionally sparsely villous; style 1 mm; stigmas 2. Utricles 4-6 mm. Seeds 3-5, 0.8-1.3 mm diam., faintly reticulate or smooth.

Flowering summer-winter. Brush-covered, rocky-gravelly hills; 0-30 m; Tex.; Mexico (Coahuila, Nuevo León, San Luis Potosí).