Baccharis salicifolia subsp. salicifolia

Mule fat, Mule Fat

Family: Asteraceae · Type: shrub · Native

Mule fat is a California native shrub found in northwestern California, the Cascade Range foothills, Sierra Nevada, southern Sierra Nevada, Tehachapi, Central Valley, central western California, southwestern California, and desert regions in riparian woodlands, canyon bottoms, and disturbed sites at elevations from 30 meters below sea level to 2,400 meters. Flowering all year, this plant produces white flowers in terminal flat-topped or pyramidal clusters, with heads featuring green or reddish-tinged involucres. Growing 1 to 4 meters tall with few spreading or ascending branches, it forms dense thickets with glabrous to minutely hairy stems. Its lance-elliptic leaves are sessile or weakly petioled, typically 3 to 20 millimeters wide, with resin gland-dotted surfaces that give the plant a sticky texture. In summer and fall, the shrub produces clusters of small flower heads with staminate flowers ranging from 17 to 48 per cluster.

Habitat: Riparian woodland, canyon bottoms, disturbed sites, often forming thickets

Bloom period: All year

Elevation: -30-2400 m

Bioregions: NW, CaRF, SNF, s SNH, Teh, GV, CW, SW, D

California counties: San Diego, Riverside, Los Angeles, Kern, Ventura, San Bernardino, Tulare, Sutter, Santa Barbara, Napa, San Benito, Alameda, San Luis Obispo, Inyo, San Joaquin, Imperial, Lake, Orange, Fresno, Solano, Santa Clara, Stanislaus, Tuolumne, Butte, Modoc, Monterey, Merced, Sonoma, Contra Costa, Marin, Tehama, Glenn, Yolo, Mendocino, Kings, Yuba, Colusa

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