This plant is native to California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and Baja California, where it grows in the deserts and along the coastline.

This plant is a perennial or small shrub not exceeding a meter in height.

The plant produces long oval-shaped leaves a few centimeters long and covered in a light-colored coat of hairs.

This species is dioecious, with individual plants bearing either male (staminate) or female (pistillate) flowers, both only a few millimeters across.

The staminate flowers are tiny cups filled with thready yellowish stamens and the pistillate flowers are the rounded, lobed immature fruits surrounded by tiny pointed sepals.