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.

General: Perennial, 8-15 cm tall; plants cushion-like to mat-like, stems prostrate to sprawling, much branched, puberulent to scabrous; caudex woody. Leaves: Basal and cauline, opposite, simple, linear, mostly 8-15 mm long, 0.5-1 mm wide, leathery, puberulent, the apex tipped with a short, sharp, abrupt point; stipules lanceolate, 2-8 mm long, silvery white, the apex sharply acuminate. Flowers: Inflorescence a more-or-less open cyme, 3-35 flowered; pedicels glandular-stalked; sepals linear-lanceolate, 4- 7.5 mm long, moderately to densely glandular-stalked, apex acuminate; petals oblong-elliptic to spatulate, 4-8 mm long, slightly shorter to somewhat longer than the sepals, white; flowers April-September. Fruits: Utricle, more-or-less ovoid, 0.8-0.9 mm long, smooth, glabrous. Ecology: Plains, rocky ridges, slopes, often in limestone soils; 1700-2300 m (5500-7500 ft); Coconino County; central to southwestern U.S. Notes: na Editor: Springer et al. 2008