General: Broom Baccharis (Baccharis sarothroides) is an upright, many-stemmed shrub (broom-like) with green, distinctly angular stems such that the shrubs appear as green stems with dry flowerheads at the stem tips. Leaves are fairly long (to 35 mm) and narrow (1-2 mm), and they lack notches or lobes towards the tip. Leaves stay on the plants during flowering (not deciduous at flowering).
Broom Baccharis is a member of the sunflower family, but the flowers have no "petals," that is, only disk flowers are present. Flowerheads are clustered on stem tips, and individual flowers are tiny.
Broom Baccharis is a fairly common component of vegetation communities in canyons, washes, along streams, and other moist places in the Lower Sonoran (Creosote-Bursage Flats) and Upper Sonoran (Mojave Desert Scrub) life zones.
Family: Sunflower (Asteraceae) |