Oenothera alyssoides Hooker & Arnott, Bot. Beechey Voy., 340. 1839; Camissonia boothii (Douglas) P. H. Raven subsp. alyssoides (Hooker & Arnott) P. H. Raven; C. boothii var. alyssoides (Hooker & Arnott) N. H. Holmgren & P. K. Holmgren; C. boothii var. villosa (S. Watson) Cronquist; Holostigma alyssoides (Hooker & Arnott) Hooker; O. alyssoides var. villosa S. Watson; O. boothii subsp. alyssoides (Hooker & Arnott) Munz; O. gauriflora Torrey & A. Gray var. hitchcockii H. Léveillé; O. utahensis (Small) Garrett; Sphaerostigma alyssoides (Hooker & Arnott) Walpers; S. hitchcockii (H. Léveillé) A. Nelson; S. implexum A. Nelson; S. macrophyllum Rydberg; S. utahense Small

Herbs usually strigillose, often densely so, especially in inflorescence, rarely villous and/or glandular puberulent. Stems 3–35 cm. Leaves not especially clustered toward base, mostly evenly distributed, 1–5.5(–7.5) × 0.3–1.6 cm; petiole 0–6 cm; blade very narrowly elliptic to narrowly ovate or ovate, margins sparsely denticulate. Inflorescences ± open. Flowers: floral tube 3–8 mm; petals white, 4–5 mm. Capsules usually very contorted, 1–1.5 mm diam. near base. Seeds monomorphic.

Flowering May–Jun(–Aug). Sandy slopes and flats, sagebrush, shadscale, rabbitbrush shrublands or pinyon-juniper woodlands; 600–2000 m; Calif., Idaho, Nev., Oreg., Utah.

Subspecies alyssoides intergrades broadly with subsp. intermedia in Nevada and is very similar to subsp. desertorum. Sphaerostigma alyssoides var. macrophyllum Small is an illegitimate name that applies here.