Tetradymia stenolepis

Mojave cottonthorn

Family: Asteraceae · Type: shrub · Native

Mojave cottonthorn is a native shrub found in southern Sierra Nevada foothills, Tehachapi, eastern Western Transverse Ranges, northern San Gabriel Mountains, Southeastern Sierra Nevada, and Mojave Desert in desert woodland and creosote-bush scrub at elevations of 600 to 1,700 meters. Flowering from June to November, this plant produces pale yellow flowers in heads 4 to 7, with each flower head approximately 8 to 10 millimeters long. Growing up to 1.2 meters tall with distinctive spiny branches and unevenly tomentose stems that become nearly glabrous in stripes below the spines, it forms a dense, intricate shrub. Its leaves include main leaves 2 to 3 centimeters long that form straight spines, and smaller clustered leaves 10 to 30 millimeters long that are approximately oblanceolate and covered in tomentose or silvery hairs. The fruit is 5 to 8 millimeters long with many fine pappus bristles 9 to 12 millimeters in length.

Habitat: Desert woodland, creosote-bush or saltbush scrub

Bloom period: Jun- Nov

Elevation: 600-1700 m

Bioregions: s SNF, Teh, e WTR, n SnGb, SNE, DMoj

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