Allenrolfea occidentalis

Iodine bush

Family: Chenopodiaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Iodine bush is a California native shrub found in the Great Valley, eastern San Francisco Bay, southern Sierra Nevada, and Desert bioregions in alkaline flats and hummocks at elevations below 1,450 meters. Flowering from June to August, this plant produces inconspicuous small flowers in dense cylindrical spikes. Growing 30 to 150 centimeters tall with many-branched stems that are erect or decumbent, it has a woody base with fleshy, jointed branches. Its leaves are tiny, scale-like, and triangular, clasping the stem and measuring just 2 to 4 millimeters long. The fruit is a small, ovoid utricle about 1 millimeter long, containing a red-brown seed.

Habitat: Flats, hummocks, in alkaline soils

Bloom period: Jun-Aug

Elevation: < 1450 m

Bioregions: GV, e SnFrB, s SNE, D

California counties: Riverside, Kings, Los Angeles, Fresno, Alameda, Inyo, Imperial, Kern, Contra Costa, San Bernardino, San Diego, Madera, Merced, Mono, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, Tulare, San Benito, Glenn, Santa Barbara

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.