Spreading nailwort

Paronychia jamesii Torrey & A. Gray var. depressa Torrey & A. Gray, Fl. N. Amer. 1: 171. 1838; P. depressa var. brevicuspis (A. Nelson) Chaudhri; P. depressa var. diffusa (A. Nelson) Chaudhri

Plants perennial, often matted; caudex branched, woody. Stems prostrate to sprawling, much-branched, 8-15 cm, scabrous-puberulent to puberulent throughout. Leaves: stipules lanceolate, 2-8 mm, apex acuminate, entire; blade linear, 8-15(-23) × 0.5-1 mm, leathery, apex shortly cuspidate, puberulent. Cymes terminal, 3-7-flowered, branched, congested, in clusters 7-25 mm wide. Flowers 5-merous, ± ovate, with prominently enlarged hypanthium and calyx tapering only slightly distally, 2.3-3.5 mm, puberulent; sepals green to purple-brown, midrib and lateral pair of veins ± obscure, oblong to lanceolate-oblong, 1.7-2 mm, leathery to rigid, margins whitish to translucent, 0.05-0.1 mm wide, scarious, apex terminated by awn, hood prominent, rounded-triangular, awn divergent, conic in proximal 1/ 2/ 3 with yellowish, scabrous spine 0.7-0.9 mm; staminodes filiform, 0.5-0.8 mm; style 1, cleft in distal 3- 3, 0.8-1.4 mm. Utricles ± ovoid, 0.8-0.9 mm, smooth, glabrous. 2n = 32.

Flowering summer. Dry plains, rocky ridges, hillsides; 800-3000 m; Colo., S.Dak., Wyo.

Paronychia depressa is considered to be closely related to the nearly allopatric P. jamesii.