Plants 3-45 cm. Stems sometimes branched distally (erect or somewhat spreading); glabrous. Leaves: stipules finely divided into crinkled threads (scarious), 1-2 mm; petiole 0.2-0.6(-0.9) cm; leaflet blade linear-elliptic, planoconvex, 0.5-3.5 × 0.1-0.4 cm, slightly fleshy, margins entire, apex acute, surfaces glabrous. Inflorescences racemes, terminating stems and branches (from all but 2 or 3 proximalmost nodes), 0.5-20 cm (5-30 cm in fruit); bracts trifoliate or unifoliate, 1-3 cm. Pedicels spreading in fruit, 2-6 mm (12-20 mm in fruit). Flowers: sepals green, broadly lanceolate, 0.5-1 × 0.3-0.6 mm, glabrous; petals pale yellow, oblong, 1.8-2.8 × 0.8-1.2 mm, glabrous; stamens yellow, 1.5-3 mm; anthers 0.4-0.6 mm; gynophore spreading, 0.5-2 mm in fruit; ovary spherical, 0.8-1.3 mm; style 0.1-0.2 mm. Capsules rhomboidal, 2.5-5 × 2.5-6 mm, (smooth), glabrous, (valves scarcely conical). Seeds 3-12, light brown, globose, 1.2-2 mm, smooth.

Flowering spring-summer. Wet alkaline meadows around thermal springs in sagebrush desert; 1200-2000 m; Calif., Idaho, Nev.

Cleomella parviflora is often found growing with C. brevipes and C. plocasperma.