Habit: Evergreen.
Leaf: leathery, adaxially +- glabrous, green, abaxially golden, with densely spaced, minute, appressed scales, margin entire or +- wavy above middle; stipules generally deciduous.
Staminate Inflorescence: branched or not, stiff, clustered or not, ascending to erect.
Pistillate Inflorescence: clustered below staminate on same or separate stalk, 1--3-flowered.
Staminate Flower: sepals generally 6, minute; stamens generally 8--10+.
Fruit: nuts 1--3, enclosed by spiny, bur-like involucre, ovoid to +- spheric, +- angled; mature year 2.
Species In Genus: 2 species: western North America.
Etymology: (Greek: golden scale, from abaxial leaf)
Jepson eFlora Author: John M. Tucker
Unabridged Reference: Hjelmqvist 1960 Bot Not 113:373--380Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange)Key to Chrysolepis
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