Stems often reddish, at least at nodes, short glandular-pubescent, viscid. Leaves: petiole 1-8.5 cm; blade oblong-lanceolate to ovate, 2.5-9.5 × 1-4.5 cm, margins entire, often undulate, often scabro-ciliate; surfaces glabrous or glandular-puberulent, adaxial surface usually glaucous. Inflorescences 10-25-flowered; bracts lanceolate to ovate, 7-19 × 2-6 mm, papery, margins glandular short ciliate, base attenuate, glabrous or glabrate. Perianth: tube pink to magenta, 12-30 mm, limb pale pink to magenta, 8-13 mm diam., lobes showy, over 1.5 mm. Fruits oval in profile, 18-30 × 11-25 mm, walls indurate; lateral ribs 1-3, or absent, if extending into wings, only slightly raised; wings (2-)3(-4).

Flowering spring-fall. Sandy soils, desert scrub; 1100-1600 m; N.Mex., Tex.; Mexico (Chihuahua).

The name Tripterocalyx cyclopterus Standley, inadvertently based on Abronia carnea Greene, is illegitimate.