General: Spiny Menodora (Menodora spinescens) is a low growing, spreading, many-branched, shrub with each twig ending in a stout spine. More than any other, this species represents the ultimate spiny desert shrub.

Spiny Menodora is sometimes a common component of vegetation communities on dry bajadas and lower mountain slopes in the Upper Sonoran (Mojave Desert Scrub and Pinyon-Juniper Woodland) life zone.

Family: Olive (Oleaceae).

Other Names: Menodora.

Plant Form: Low, spreading, spiny shrub with many short branches.

Height: Usually knee-high (to about 3 feet).

Bark: Gray or green.

Stems: Many branched with short, stout branchlets ending at a spine.

Leaves: Small, present during flowering. Usually none.

Flowers: Blooms in the spring.

Seeds:

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

Elevation: 3,500 to 6,500 feet

Distribution: Southern Nevada and northwest Arizona.

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