Plants perennial.
Stems prostrate, often buried in sand, usually much branched, forming large mats, succulent, densely glandular-pubescent to glabrous.
Leaves: 1-6 cm; blade deltate-ovate to reniform, 2.2-4.8 × 2.7-5.2 cm, margins usually entire, sometimes slightly repand and undulate, surfaces glabrous or viscid-puberulent.
Inflorescences: peduncle longer than subtending petiole; bracts ovate, 5-9 × 3-5 mm, thin, yellowish green, glandular-pubescent; flowers 17-35.
Perianth: tube yellowish green, 6.5-18 mm, limb yellow, 8-13 mm diam., lobes slightly to moderately reflexed.
Fruits winged, ± rhombic in profile, attenuate at both ends, 8-15 × 6-14 mm, scarious; wings 4-5, thin walled, small, cavities extending into wing. Flowering spring-summer. Sandy soils, coastal scrub, lees of dunes adjacent to strand; 0-50 m; B.C.; Calif., Oreg., Wash. S. S. Tillett (1967) considered plants of
Abronia umbellata var.
minor (Standley) Munz to be introgressants between
A. latifolia and
A. umbellata.
