Purple Sand Verbena

Plants on gypsum flats and knolls of White Sands, New Mexico, are perennial, but may flower in their first season.

Plants annual (perennial). Stems decumbent to ascending, much branched, elongate, often reddish, glandular-pubescent, viscid. Leaves: petiole 1-7 cm; blade ovate-oblong to elliptic, 1-5.5 × 0.7-3 cm, margins entire to sinuate, often ± undulate, infrequently shallowly lobed, surfaces viscid-pubescent. Inflorescences: peduncle longer than subtending petiole; bracts lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, 5-10 × 1-3 mm, papery, glandular-pubescent; flowers 10-30. Perianth: tube pink, 10-20 mm, limb bright magenta to pale pink, infrequently pale rose, 6-8 mm diam. Fruits broadly obdeltate in profile, 5-10 × 4-8 mm, scarious, apex narrowly tapered to a prominent beak; wings 5, extending to or slightly beyond base of beak, truncate, with conspicuous dilations, cavities extending throughout.

Ariz., N.Mex., Tex.; n Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila).

Flowering spring-fall.

Sandy soils, desert scrub; 300-1300m.

Abronia angustifolia var. arizonica (Standley) Kearney & Peebles; A. torreyi Standley

Abronia angustifolia Greene, Pittonia 3: 344. 1898
Abronia mellifera Torr. Bot. Mex. Bound. Surv. 170. 1859. Not A. mellifera Dougl. 1829.
Abronia turbinata Torr.; S. Wats. Bot. King's Expl. 285, in part. 1871.
Abronia turbinata stenophylla Heimerl, Ann. Cons. Jard. Geneve 5: 190. 1901.
Abronia arizonica Standley, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: 319. 1909.
Abronia lobatifolia Standley, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: 319. 1909.
Abronia Torreyi Standley, Contr. U. S. Nat. Herb. 12: 319. 1909.
Annual, much branched, the branches stout or slender, ascending or decumbent, 1-5 dm. long, densely viscid-puberulent or short-villous; petioles slender, 1-7.5 cm. long; leaf-blades very variable in outline, mostly ovate-oblong or lance-oblong, sometimes broadly ovate-oval, oval, deltoid, lanceolate, or narrowly lance-oblong, 1.5-5 cm. long, 0.5-3 cm. wide, subcordate to narrowly cuneate at the base, obtuse to attenuate at the apex, entire or undulate, rarely shallowly lobed, viscid-puberulent or glabrate, often glaucescent beneath; peduncles 2-7 cm. long, viscid-puberulent or densely viscid-villous ; bracts lanceolate or lance-linear, 6-12 mm. long, attenuate or long-attenuate, greenish, viscid-puberulent; perianth 15-20 mm. long, viscid-villous or puberulent outside, the limb 6-8 mm. wide, purplish-red; fruit about 6 mm. long, broadly turbinate, deeply lobed, thin-walled, villous above, the lobes acutish, ending above in flat disks; seed lance-oblong, 1.5-2 mm. long, deep-brown or black, lustrous.
Type locality: White Sands, Otero County, New Mexico.
dTstribution : In sandy soil, western Texas to southern Anzona, southward m Chihuahua.