Kingdom Plantae Family Fabaceae Genus Psorothamnus Rank Species | Order Fabales Subfamily Faboideae Scientific name Psorothamnus arborescens | |
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Similar Psorothamnus, Psorothamnus fremontii, Psorothamnus polydenius, Psorothamnus schottii, Psorothamnus emoryi | ||
Psorothamnus arborescens is a species of flowering plant in the legume family known by the common name Mojave indigo bush.
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Distribution
Psorothamnus arborescens is native to southwestern North America, where it can be found in many types of desert and dry mountainous habitats. It grows at 100–1,900 metres (330–6,230 ft) in elevation.
It is found in the Californian Mojave Desert and Colorado Desert, south into the Sonoran Desert in Northwest Mexico, east past the Sierra Nevada into the Nevada Great Basin desert, and west into the San Bernardino Mountains of Southern California.
Description
Psorothamnus arborescens is a shrub growing no more than 1 metre (3.3 ft) tall, its highly branching stems sometimes with thorns. The leaves are each made up of a few pairs of green linear to oval leaflets up to a centimeter in length.
The inflorescence is a long raceme of many flowers with reddish green calyces of sepals and bright purple pealike corollas up to a centimeter long.
The fruit is a glandular legume pod up to a centimeter long containing one seed.
Varieties
The varieties of this species are generally similar in appearance but more restricted in distribution: