General: Dyebush (Psorothamnus emoryi) is a shrub of dry, low deserts. The stems are covered with dense, white, woolly hairs (canescent). The leaves are glandular, all odd-1-pinnate, and the terminal leaflet is much longer than the lateral leaflets. The inflorescence is a dense spherical ball of bracts and deep purple flowers.
Dyebush is a fairly common component of vegetation communities in dry, well-drained sandy and gravelly soils on desert flats and lower bajadas in the Lower Sonoran (Creosote-Bursage Flats) and lower Upper Sonoran (Mojave Desert Scrub) life zones.
Around Las Vegas, look for Dyebush south of town in the deserts of southern California and southern Arizona.
Family: Pea (Fabaceae) |