Mirabilis californica A. Gray var. villosa Kellogg, Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. 3: 10. 1863; Hesperonia bigelovii (A. Gray) Standley; Mirabilis aspera Greene; M. bigelovii A. Gray; M. bigelovii var. aspera (Greene) Munz; M. californica var. aspera (Greene) Jepson; M. laevis var. aspera (Greene) Jepson

Stems few-many, when few often sprawling, when many often forming dense clumps, moderately to densely villous or viscid-villous, increasingly dense and viscid distally. Leaf blades 0.5-4 × 1-3.7 cm. Inflorescences cymose, usually broad; branches ± equal throughout; involucres 5-7 mm; bracts 60-70% connate, lobes ovate-triangular or ovate-oblong, base often 70-100% of height, apex obtuse or acute. Flowers: perianth usually white, sometimes pink or magenta or tinged with pink at base. Fruits gray-brown, dark charcoal brown, or olive, often dark mottled, often faintly marked with 10 paler longitudinal lines, ellipsoid, obovoid, or almost spheric, 4-6 × 2.4-4 mm. 2n = 60.

Flowering ± year-round, most vigorously in spring. Rocky slopes, desert brushlands; -40-2200 m; Ariz., Calif., Nev., Utah; Mexico (Baja California, Sonora).