Plants perennial. Stems prostrate, often buried, often extensively branched, forming large mats, succulent, densely glandular-pubescent. Leaves: petiole 0.5-3 cm; blade elliptic to oblong or nearly obovate, 5-6.8 × 2.3-4.3 cm, margins usually entire, sometimes ± repand and undulate, surfaces minutely viscid-puberulent. Inflorescences: peduncle longer than subtending petiole; bracts lanceolate to lance-ovate, 7-11 × 3-4 mm, papery, minutely glandular to glandular-pubescent; flowers 10-18. Perianth: tube red to reddish green, 6-10 mm, limb deep purplish red, 7-10 mm diam., lobes tightly reflexed. Fruits turbinate, 10-14 × 6-18 mm, thick, indurate, apex irregularly truncate and ± beaked; wings 3-5, without cavities.

Flowering year-round. Foredunes and unstable dunes near strand; 0-50 m; Calif.; Mexico (Baja California, Baja California Sur, Sinaloa, Sonora).