Tetradymia tetrameres

Dune horsebrush, Dune Horsebrush

Family: Asteraceae · Type: shrub · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 2B.2

Dune horsebrush is a rare (CNPS 2B.2) California native shrub found in northern Southeastern Sierra Nevada desert regions in dunes and sagebrush scrub at elevations of 1,200 to 2,100 meters. Flowering from May to September, this plant produces pale yellow flowers in clusters of 4 to 6 heads approximately 8 to 9 millimeters long. Growing to 2 meters tall with tomentose (densely woolly) stems, it develops a distinctive branching structure with soft, thread-like leaves. Its leaves are sparsely tomentose, with main leaves 1 to 4 centimeters long and thread-like, and clustered leaves 10 to 20 millimeters long ranging from thread-like to linear-oblanceolate in shape. The fruit is 5 to 6 millimeters long, densely covered in long soft hairs and topped with approximately 20 stiff bristles.

Habitat: Dunes, deep sand, sagebrush scrub

Bloom period: May-Sep

Elevation: 1200-2100 m

Bioregions: n SNE

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