It is native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, where it grows in dry areas such as desert flats and chaparral slopes.

This is a small, tangled shrub under a meter in height with ascending branches covered in silky hairs and fuzzy linear leaves, tips of branches are not thornlike.

The three upper petals are held erect and the lower two are glandular structures next to the ovary.

[1] The fruit is a furry heart-shaped body covered in pink spines.

This species and others in its genus are root parasites, tapping the tissues of nearby plants for nutrients, especially water.