General: Fremont's Chaffbush (Amphipappus fremontii) is a low, mounded, many branched but densely packed shrub most easily recognized by the thin, white, pointed branches. The leaves are small and oval, hairy or not. Yellow flowerheads are crowed onto the tips of fresh growth in the spring. Phyllaries (7-12), pale green, not clearly differentiated. Each flowerhead with 1-2 ray flowers and 3-7 disk flowers.

Fremont's Chaffbush is a locally common component of desert vegetation communities on well-drained sandy, gravelly, and rocky soils in canyons and on slopes into the lower mountains in the Upper Sonoran (Mojave Desert Scrub and Pinyon-Juniper Woodland) life zone.

Family: Sunflower (Asteraceae).

Plant Form: Low, mounted shrub.

Height: To about 18 inches (3 feet).

Seeds:

Habitat: Dry, well-drained sandy, gravelly, and rocky soils on upper bajadas and moderate slopes in the lower mountains.

Bark: Light gray to white.

Stems: Many branches, twigs thin, age to white.

Leaves: Blade usually less than 1-inch long (to about 1-3/4 inches), oval, edge entire near the stem, serrate towards the tip.

Flowers: Blooms late spring. Inflorescence: raceme about 1-1/2 inches long. Flowers: petals to about 1/2-inch long, white.

Elevation: To about 5,000 feet.

Distribution: Mojave Desert from California to Utah and Arizona.

Comments: There are two varieties of chaffbush in southern Nevada:

• Amphipappus fremontii var. fremontii. Fresh growth (twigs, peduncles, and leaves) without hairs (NE Mojave Desert)
• Amphipappus fremontii var. spinosus. Fresh growth (twigs, peduncles, and leaves) densely covered with short, stiff hairs (east and central Mojave Desert)