Krameria erecta

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Krameria erecta, also known as Pima rhatany, purple heather, or littleleaf rhatany, is a small shrub native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. It grows in dry places such as desert flats and chaparral slopes. The plant is a tangled shrub under a meter tall, with ascending branches covered in silky hairs and narrow, fuzzy leaves. It flowers in spring and, in wetter years, again in fall. The flower has four or five bright pink cup-shaped sepals and usually five small pink petals with green bases. The upper three petals stand upright, while the lower two are glandular near the ovary, next to four curved stamens. Bees Centris atripes and Centris rhodopus pollinate it. The fruit is a furry, heart-shaped pod covered in pink spines and contains seeds. Krameria erecta reproduces by seed and, like other Krameria species, is a root parasite that taps nutrients and especially water from nearby plants to survive in very dry soil.