Stems usually pubescent, rarely glabrous, hairs strictly or irreg­ularly spreading, rarely ± crisped, sparse to dense, mostly 0.3–0.5 mm. Leaf blades elliptic, ovate, or obovate proximally, becoming narrowly so to nearly lanceolate distally, mostly 7–20(–27) × 3–10(–18) mm, venation usually prominently and firmly reticulate, occasionally obscure, surfaces with pubescence similar to stems, or hairs slightly longer. Keel sacs glabrous or with scat­tered, spreading hairs proximally, hairs not incurved in distal 1/2. 2n = 18.

Flowering spring–fall (year-round). Limestone or caliche, sandstone, shale, infrequently on gypsum, granite, or igneous substrates on ridge tops, slopes, roadcuts, canyons in juniper-oak woodlands, grassland, thorn scrub, desert scrub, canyon brush; 90–1600 m; Tex.; Mexico (Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Nuevo León, Tamaulipas).

Variety lindheimeri occurs in central, southern, and southwestern Texas in over 25 counties.