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