Larrea tridentata

South american creosote bush

Family: Zygophyllaceae · Type: shrub · Native

South american creosote bush is a native shrub found in the Sonoran Desert, Mojave Desert, and uncommon in the Tehachapi Mountains, San Joaquin Valley, Southern California, and San Jacinto Mountains in desert scrub at elevations below 1,000 meters. Flowering from April to May, this plant produces small yellow-green flowers less than 2.5 centimeters wide with distinctive brown petal claws. Growing with a dense, rounded form to approximately 1 to 3 meters tall, it has stiff, resinous branches that give off a strong aromatic scent when crushed. Its leaves are composed of small, obliquely lanceolate leaflets less than 18 millimeters long, with a distinctive curved shape and tiny awns between leaflets. The fruit is covered in dense, silvery to red-brown hairs approximately 2 to 4 millimeters long, giving the plant a distinctive textured appearance.

Habitat: Common. Desert scrub

Bloom period: Apr-May

Elevation: < 1000 m

Bioregions: SNE, D, (uncommon Teh, SnJV, SCo, SnJt)

California counties: Riverside, San Bernardino, Inyo, Kern, Imperial, Los Angeles, San Diego

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