A silvery, low-mounding groundcover native to the Chihuahuan Desert, with small puffs of purple flowers in spring. It takes full sun and reflected heat on very little water, which makes it one of the toughest groundcovers for open desert plantings.
Living with it in the Phoenix Valley
Watering
Follow the shrub, groundcover and succulent schedule in our Landscape Care guide while it establishes. Once settled, it needs very little. Overwatering is the most common way to lose it, so keep it off the same valve as thirsty plants.
Pruning
Trim only to keep it out of paths. Shearing spoils its natural trailing shape. If an older plant gets woody or thin, cut it back hard in late winter every few years and it will refresh.
Feeding
Skip the fertilizer. Like other legumes, it supplies its own nitrogen, and extra feeding only pushes floppy growth.
Soil
It does best in loose, well-drained ground and handles alkaline soil well. Heavy, wet soil leads to root rot.
How our designers use it
Slopes and open ground
Its trailing stems root where they touch the soil, knitting together a low cover that holds banks and fills wide, sunny areas.
Silver contrast
The fine, silvery foliage sets off the deep green of agaves and the gold of barrel cactus, and softens boulders and gravel.
Hot, reflected spots
It is one of the groundcovers we are comfortable placing along driveways and west-facing walls where heat bounces off hardscape.
Good to know
Around the pool
No thorns and very little litter make it a good fit near a pool, as long as the soil around it drains well and it isn’t kept wet by splash-out.
First impressions
It often looks scraggly in a nursery pot. Once in the ground it fills in quickly.
