Distribution: Occurring chiefly east of the Cascades crest in Washington; Yukon Territory to California, east across North America to the Atlantic Coast.

Habitat: Dry to moist-but-sandy soil, sea level to subalpine; common in the shrub-steppe.

Flowers: April-August

Origin: Native

Growth Duration: Perennial

Conservation Status: Not of concern

Glabrous, parasitic, perennial herbs from rhizomes, the stems clustered, 5-30 cm. tall, erect.

Leaves alternate, entire, short-petiolate, linear-elliptic to lanceolate or oblong, 5-40 mm. long and 1-10 mm. broad, from thin, green on both surfaces to glaucous, thick and fleshy.

Flowers perfect, 3-7 mm. long, numerous in clusters of terminal and sub-terminal, small cymes; ovary inferior, surmounted by a disk surrounded by 5 white to purplish, broadly lanceolate, erect to spreading calyx lobes; stamens 5, opposite the calyx lobes, the filaments 1 mm. long, with a tuft of hairs at the base.

Drupe dry to fleshy, purplish to brown, 4-8 mm. long, bearing the persistent calyx.