The
photo at right shows a close-up of the leaves and flowers of matted nama as seen
at Fort Rock in central Lake County, Oregon. Photographed July 19, 1998.
Matted nama is a minute annual wildflower with spreading branches that form mats 5-20 mm wide. The branches are stout and brittle and somewhat dichotomously branched. The numerous leaves are crowded towards the ends of the branches. The oblanceolate leaves are 1-2 cm long. The herbage consists of a dense covering of hairs.
The solitary flowers are sessile in the forks of the branches or in the axils of the leaves. The tubular corolla is up to 3 mm long and is white to yellowish with short blue or purplish lobes. The styles are united half their length or more.
Matted nama may be found in arid, sandy soils in the deserts and foothills.
Matted nama may be found from Adams County in Washington south through central and eastern Oregon to Inyou County, California and east to Gooding County, Idaho and Nye County in Nevada and with outlying populations in Wyoming and Utah.