Common Name: CALTROP FAMILY Habit: Annual, perennial herb, shrub, often armed; caudex present or not. Stem: branched; nodes often angled, swollen. Leaf: 1-compound, opposite, petioled; stipules persistent or not; leaflets entire. Inflorescence: flowers 1--2 in axils. Flower: bisexual; sepals 5, free, persistent or not; petals 5, free, generally spreading, twisted (corolla propeller-like) or not; stamens 10, appendaged on inside base or not; ovary superior, chambers (and lobes) 5--10, each with 1--several ovules, placentas axile. Fruit: capsule or splitting into 5--10 nutlets (= mericarps). Genera In Family: 27 genera, +- 250 species: widespread especially in warm, dry regions; some cultivated (Guaiacum, lignum vitae; Tribulus, caltrop). eFlora Treatment Author: Duncan M. Porter Scientific Editor: Thomas J. Rosatti.
Common Name: CREOSOTE BUSH Habit: Shrub, unarmed. Stem: branched, erect to prostrate, < 4 m, +- red becoming gray; nodes swollen, darker; hairs 0 or appressed. Leaf: stipules persistent; leaflets 2, fused at base. Inflorescence: flowers 1 in axils. Flower: sepals unequal, overlapping, deciduous; petals clawed, twisted, yellow, deciduous; stamen appendages bract-like, coarsely toothed. Fruit: 5-lobed, spheric, short-stalked, hairy, splitting into 5 hairy, 1-seeded nutlets. Etymology: (Juan Antonio Pérez Hernández de Larrea, Bishop of Valladolid, Spain, 1730--1803) Reference: [Lia et al. 2001 Molec Phylogen Evol 21:309--320]
Larrea tridentata (DC.) Coville
NATIVE Leaf: leaflets < 18 mm, < 8.5 mm wide, obliquely lanceolate to curved; awn between leaflets < 2 mm, +- deciduous. Flower: < 2.5 cm wide; sepals ovoid, appressed-hairy; petal claw +- brown; stamens > appendages; ovary hairs dense, straight, stiff, silvery (red-brown in fruit); style 4--6 mm, persistent on young fruit. Fruit: 4.5 mm wide (except hairs), hairs +- 2--4 mm, dense, spreading. Ecology: Common. Desert scrub; Elevation: < 1000 m. Bioregional Distribution: SNE, D, (uncommon Teh, SnJV, SCo, SnJt); Distribution Outside California: to southwestern Utah, Texas, central Mexico. Flowering Time: Apr--May Note: Closely related to southern South America Larrea divaricata. Clones may live > 11000 years, longest among extant plants; resinous odor characteristic; dominant shrub over vast areas of desert. Synonyms: Larrea divaricata Cav. subsp. tridentata (DC.) Felger & C.H. Lowe; Larrea tridentata var. arenaria L.D. Benson Jepson eFlora Author: Duncan M. Porter Reference: [Lia et al. 2001 Molec Phylogen Evol 21:309--320] Index of California Plant Names (ICPN; linked via the Jepson Online Interchange) Previous taxon: Larrea Next taxon: Tribulus
Jepson Video for Larrea tridentata
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Botanical illustration including Larrea tridentata
Citation for this treatment: Duncan M. Porter 2012, Larrea tridentata, in Jepson Flora Project (eds.) Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/eflora_display.php?tid=30255, accessed on November 29, 2023.
Citation for the whole project: Jepson Flora Project (eds.) 2023, Jepson eFlora, https://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/eflora/, accessed on November 29, 2023.
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(Note: any qualifiers in the taxon distribution description, such as 'northern', 'southern', 'adjacent' etc., are not reflected in the map above, and in some cases indication of a taxon in a subdivision is based on a single collection or author-verified occurence).
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Consortium of California Herbaria.
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Blue markers indicate specimens that map to one of the expected Jepson geographic subdivisions (see left map). Purple markers indicate specimens collected from a garden, greenhouse, or other non-wild location.
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CCH collections by month
Duplicates counted once; synonyms included.
Species do not include records of infraspecific taxa, if there are more than 1 infraspecific taxon in CA.
Blue line denotes eFlora flowering time (fruiting time in some monocot genera).
