Ericameria laricifolia

Turpentine-brush

Family: Asteraceae · Type: shrub · Native

Turpentine-brush is a California native shrub found in the desert mountains in rocky canyons, pinyon and juniper woodland, and creosote-bush scrub at elevations of 1,000 to 2,000 meters. Flowering from September to October, this plant produces yellow flowers in radiate heads arranged in cyme-like clusters with 3 to 6 ray flowers and 8 to 11 millimeters long. Growing as an aromatic shrub 3 to 10 decimeters tall with glabrous, resinous stems that are gland-dotted, it has a distinctive branching structure. Its leaves are 10 to 30 millimeters long, generally cylindrical, glabrous, and marked with gland-dotted pits, sometimes forming small axillary leaf clusters. The fruit is a narrowly obconic structure 3.5 to 4 millimeters long, covered in white soft hairs and featuring a tan pappus 4 to 6 millimeters long.

Habitat: Rocky canyons, pinyon/juniper woodland, creosote-bush scrub

Bloom period: Sep-Oct

Elevation: 1000-2000 m

Bioregions: DMtns

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