Nama demissum is an annual flowering plant, known by the common name purplemat, or Purple mat.
Purple mat grows in the American desert southwest, such as the Mojave Desert, and parts of Mexico on dry sandy or gravelly flats from 2,000 feet to 5,500 feet in elevation in creosote bush scrub. The plant grows to three inches high in a small patch of hairy glandular herbage. The corolla is generally funnel-shaped.
The flowers range from pinkish to purple. It blooms from February to May. With its short stems generally growing along the ground, purple mat flowers are relatively large and bright. Flowers are supported by a calyx which has five thin lobes, fused at the base. From here, the corolla tube extends about half an inch, opening to five symmetric, purple lobes. The inside of the corolla tube is whitish in the middle, yellow around the base. Inside are five stamens of slightly different lengths, attached near the base and not exserted. Parallel, darker purple veins run up the corolla tube The fruit is capsulated, generally loculicidal, and ovoid to elliptic. Its plentiful seeds generally are small, reddish brown, brown, black or yellow
Leaves are mostly basal, from where the branched, greenish-red, glandular hairy stems extend just a few inches, topped by a small cluster typically containing 3 or 4 flowers, each joined to the main stem by short pedicels and subtended by a few leafy bracts. Leaves are broad at the top, tapering gradually towards the base.
It is listed as being a member of either the hydrophyllaceae family or the borage family (boraginaceae).
The Kawaiisu made an edible mush of purple mat seeds by pounding them in a mortar and boiling them.