[1][3] It has white showy flowers, milky sap, and weak, zigzag stems, that may grow up through other shrubs for support.

[2] The annual plants are gray-green with sparse foliage and are between 15 and 50 centimetres (6 and 19+1⁄2 inches) high.

[3] White flowerheads appear at the end of the stems between May and June in the species native range.

[3] In the United States the species occurs in California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas.

It occurs in sandy or gravelly soils in creosote bush scrub and Joshua Tree woodland plant communities in the Mojave Desert and Sonoran Desert, from California to Texas and northern Mexico.