Ambrosia dumosa
White bur-sage, White Bur-Sage
Family: Asteraceae · Type: shrub · Native
White bur-sage is a California native shrub found in southern Sierra Nevada, western and Inyo Mountains, and desert regions in creosote-bush scrub at elevations from 80 to 1,700 meters. Flowering from December to June, this plant produces small heads of inconspicuous white flowers in spike-like clusters. Growing as a rounded, much-branched shrub 20 to 90 centimeters tall with stiff stems softly covered in short, fine hairs, it forms a dense, compact shape. Its leaves are sessile or with short petioles, approximately ovate, 0.5 to 4 centimeters long and divided into 1 to 3 pinnate lobes. The distinctive fruit is a bur 4 to 9 millimeters wide, golden to purple-brown with 12 to 35 sharp, spiraled spines that help in seed dispersal.
Habitat: Creosote-bush scrub
Bloom period: Dec-Jun
Elevation: -80-1700 m
Bioregions: s SNE, W&I, D
Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.