General: Emory Baccharis (Baccharis emoryi) is an upright, bushy shrub that grows in damp places. The leaves are oblong, thickened, up to about 3-inches long and 1-inch wide. The leaves can be entire, but more often they are coarsely toothed towards the end. The leaves are alternate and sessile, persist through flowering, and sticky. The fresh stems are angular and hairless.
Emory Baccharis is dioecious, such that male and female plants produce different types of flowers. Involucres are cylindric with short phyllaries (2-6 mm) arranged in several ranks. Staminate and pistillate heads each contains about 25 flowers. Male flowers have yellow stamens, and female flowers eventually produce a seed with a long bristles (pappus) that aid in dispersal.
Emory Baccharis is a uncommon component of vegetation communities in moist canyons in the Lower Sonoran (Creosote-Bursage Flats) and Upper Sonoran (Mojave Desert Scrub) life zones.
Family: Sunflower (Asteraceae). Also called Baccharis salicina. |