Psorothamnus emoryi

Dyebush

Family: Fabaceae · Type: shrub · Native

Dyebush is a California native shrub found in southern Desert Mountains and Desert Sonoran regions on desert flats, washes, and dunes at elevations below 700 meters. Flowering from March to May, this plant produces two-colored purple and white flowers in dense, spike-like clusters. Growing as a compact subshrub less than 1 meter tall and 2 meters wide, it features densely gray-woolly branches with tiny red-orange glandular twigs. Its leaves have 5 to 9 narrow leaflets between 2 to 10 millimeters long, ranging from oblong to obovate in shape. The small fruits are glandular-hairy and approximately 3 millimeters long.

Habitat: Desert flats, washes, dunes

Bloom period: Mar-May

Elevation: < 700 m

Bioregions: s DMoj, DSon

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

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