Host an Event Volunteer Join Tickets

Support the plant database you love!

Share

Plant Database

Search for native plants by scientific name, common name or family. If you are not sure what you are looking for, try the Combination Search or our Recommended Species lists.

Enter a Plant Name:
Or you can choose a plant family:

Psorothamnus arborescens var. arborescens

Psorothamnus arborescens (Torr. ex A. Gray) Barneby var. arborescens

Mojave Indigobush

Fabaceae (Pea family)

Synonym(s): Dalea arborescens, Dalea fremontii var. saundersii

USDA Symbol: PSARA

USDA Native Status: L48 (N)

"Variable in pubescence, the foliage either densely villous-tomentulose or only thinly pilosulous, gray or green; young branchlets usually purplish, the old becoming brown and furrowed; leaves 1-3.5 cm long, the (3) 4-7 leaflets ovate to obovate or elliptic, often asymmetrically so, obtuse, emarginate, or bluntly gland-mucronulate, (3) 5-10 mm long, the 3 uppermost of all leaves usually decurrent and often irregularly confluent, but sometimes all free and the lateral ones all jointed; flower large, the calyx as given in key; petals indigo blue, the banner 9-10 mm, the keel 10.2-11.4 mm, its blades 8.2-8.4 mm long; pod either glabrous except for a few hairs along the ventral keel or thinly villosulous; androecium mostly 8.8-9.8 mm long, the filaments free for 4-5.6 mm." (bibref: 1812).

 

From the Image Gallery

No images of this plant

Plant Characteristics

Duration: Perennial
Habit: Shrub
Leaf Arrangement: Alternate
Fruit Type: Legume
Size Notes: "3-10 dm tall." (bibref: 1812).
Leaf: "Variable in pubescence, the foliage either densely villous-tomentulose or only thinly pilosulous, gray or green; young branchlets usually purplish, the old becoming brown and furrowed; leaves 1-3.5 cm long, the (3) 4-7 leaflets ovate to obovate or elliptic, often asymmetrically so, obtuse, emarginate, or bluntly gland-mucronulate, (3) 5-10 mm long, the 3 uppermost of all leaves usually decurrent and often irregularly confluent, but sometimes all free and the lateral ones all jointed." (bibref: 1812).
Flower: "Flower large, the calyx as given in key; petals indigo blue, the banner 9-10 mm, the keel 10.2-11.4 mm, its blades 8.2-8.4 mm long; pod either glabrous except for a few hairs along the ventral keel or thinly villosulous; androecium mostly 8.8-9.8 mm long, the filaments free for 4-5.6 mm." (bibref: 1812).
Fruit: "Pod obliquely ellipsoid or ovoid-ellipsoid, the subcompressed body 8-10 mm long, (3.6) 4-6 mm diameter, at least beyond the middle 2-carinate by the sutures, the convex valves charged with large, round or broadly elliptic blister-glands, between the glands either villosulous or glabrous, the ventral suture ciliolate; seed (4.7) 5-6 mm long." (bibref: 1812).

Bloom Information

Bloom Color: Blue
Bloom Time: Apr , May
Bloom Notes: "Petals indigo-blue." (bibref: 1812).

Distribution

USA: CA
Native Distribution: "Locally plentiful in scattered stations on southwestern Mohave Desert in western San Bernardino and adjoining Kern counties, California (approximately within the triangle formed by towns of Victorville, Barstow., and Randsburg); greatly isolated near sea-level on shore of Gulf of California in northwestern Sonora (Puerto Penasco, latitude ± 30° 40'N)." (bibref: 1812).
Native Habitat: "Desert hillsides and stony flats in the Larrea belt, on granitic bedrock, sometimes with Yucca arborescens, 390-780 m (1300-2600 ft),." (bibref: 1812).

Additional resources

USDA: Find Psorothamnus arborescens var. arborescens in USDA Plants
FNA: Find Psorothamnus arborescens var. arborescens in the Flora of North America (if available)
Google: Search Google for Psorothamnus arborescens var. arborescens

Metadata

Record Modified: 2020-12-07
Research By: Joseph A. Marcus

Go back