Ambrosia salsola

Common burrobrush, cheesebush, Cheesebush

Family: Asteraceae · Type: shrub · Native

Common burrobrush is a California native shrub found in desert regions in arid, sandy habitats. Flowering from spring to summer, this plant produces small greenish-white heads of staminate and pistillate flowers in tight, spike-like clusters. Growing with branched stems up to 2 meters tall, it develops a distinctive structure with multiple spreading branches throughout. Its leaves are linear to thread-like, 2 to 5 centimeters long, with a grooved surface densely covered in tiny hairs and a resinous quality. The fruit is a bur with 5 to 18 whorled or spiraled wings 2 to 7 millimeters long, giving the plant a unique textural appearance.

California counties: San Bernardino, Kern, Riverside, Imperial, Inyo, San Luis Obispo, Los Angeles, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Mono, Ventura

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