PLANT: Annual or weakly perennial herbs from a fibrous root. STEMS: prostrate to somewhat ascending, much branched, 3-16 cm long. LEAVES: alternate, linear, cylindrical or nearly so, 3-13 mm long, 0.5-1.5 mm wide; nodes with conspicuous white-villous hairs. INFLORESCENCE: whitevillous; involucral leaves 6-10, 5-12 mm long, 0.5-1 mm wide. FLOWERS: solitary or clustered at the ends of branches; petals reddish pink, 3-7 mm long; stigmatic branches 3-5. CAPSULES: 2-5 mm in diameter; slightly stipitate. SEEDS: black, stellate-tuberculate. NOTES: Gravelly or sandy soils, slopes and dry washes: Cochise, Santa Cruz, Yavapai cos.; 1200-1600 m (4000-5200 ft); Apr-Sep; MO to KS, TX, CA, NM, n Mex. Portulaca pilosa can be confused with P. suffrutescens when not in flower. P. suffrutescens is stiffly erect while P. pilosa tends to be prostrate or only somewhat ascending. Also, the distance between leaf nodes in P. suffrutescens is generally longer than in P. pilosa (5-25 mm vs. 1-7 mm). The density of hairs in the nodes gives P. pilosa a more hairy appearance and the involucral hairs are whitish rather than tan or brownish. Some of these characteristics might not be apparent in young plants, plants grown under difficult conditions, or herbarium specimens. REFERENCE: Allison Bair, Marissa Howe, Daniela Roth, Robin Taylor, Tina Ayers, and Robert W. Kiger., 2006, Vascular Plants of Arizona: Portulacaceae. CANOTIA 2(1): 1-22.