Grayia spinosa

Hop sage

Family: Chenopodiaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Hop sage is a California native shrub found in the eastern Sierra Nevada, Tehachapi, southeastern San Joaquin Valley, northern western Transverse Ranges, Great Basin, eastern Mojave Desert, and northwestern Sonoran Desert in sandy to gravelly soils of scrub and pinyon/juniper woodland at elevations of 300 to 2,900 meters. Flowering from March to June, this plant produces white to red-tinged flowers in spike-like clusters with distinctive white-tipped leaves. Growing 1 to 3 meters tall with many stiff, spine-like branches that have red-brown bark peeling in strips, it develops a rounded shape with age. Its alternate leaves are spoon-shaped to oblanceolate, 5 to 25 millimeters long, flat and entire with green blades and white-tipped ends. The fruit bracts are fused into a sac-like, round, white to red-tinged structure with flat, winged margins.

Habitat: Sandy to gravelly soils in scrub, pinyon/juniper woodland

Bloom period: Mar-Jun

Elevation: 300-2900 m

Bioregions: SNH (e slope), Teh, se SnJV, WTR (n slope), GB, DMoj, nw DSon

California counties: San Bernardino, Inyo, San Luis Obispo, San Diego, Mono, Modoc, Los Angeles, Siskiyou, Kern, Riverside, Tulare, Placer, Lassen, Alpine, Sierra, Ventura

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