Coleogyne

Last updated

Coleogyne
Coleogyne ramosissima 4.jpg
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Rosales
Family: Rosaceae
Subfamily: Amygdaloideae
Tribe: Kerrieae
Genus: Coleogyne
Torr. [1]
Species:
C. ramosissima
Binomial name
Coleogyne ramosissima
Torr.

Coleogyne ramosissima or blackbrush, is a low lying, dark grayish-green, aromatic, [2] spiny, perennial, soft wooded [2] shrub, native to the deserts of the southwestern United States. [3] [4] It is called blackbrush because the gray branches darken when wet by rains. [3] [4] It is in the rose family (Rosaceae), [3] [4] and is the only species in the monotypic genus Coleogyne.

Contents

Growth pattern

It has dense, intricate branches ("ramosissima" means "many branched"). [4] Its dense branches form spiny tips. [4] This plant forms vast pure stands across the desert floor and on scrubby slopes, giving the landscape a uniform dark-gray color. [3] Vegetative types in which it dominates or is a codominate are called blackbrush scrub. [3] [4]

It drops most of its leaves and becomes dormant in conditions of severe dryness (drought-deciduous), but some leaves are usually retained at the end of the branches. [3] The thickly branched plant forms thickets which may spread across the ground in clumps or grow erect to approach six feet in height in the Mojave Desert, [3] and 4 feet in the Canyonlands desert region. [4]

Flowers

Flowers have 4 yellowish sepals, many yellow stamens, and may have 4 or no petals. [4] It is atypical of members of the rose family in that the flowers have no petals, have four rather than five sepals, and the leaves are opposite (occur in pairs on the twig), rather than alternate (occurring one at a time going up the twig. [3] [5] The sepals may persist on the plant. [4] It flowers between April and July.

Leaves

The leaves are inversely lanceolate, up to 3/8" long, have a small point at the tip, and are arranged in opposite pairs along the stem, [4] which is uncommon in members of the rose family. [5]

It forms vast communities in the Canyonlands region, [4] and in the Mojave Desert. [3]

Flowering is triggered by a heavy spring rain in this desert-adapted species. The leathery flowers grow at the ends of small stems. They are encased in thick, fuzzy sepals which are yellow inside and reddish or orange on the outer surface. There are no petals, but the sepals remain after the flower opens, surrounding the patch of whiskery stamens and the central pistil. The fruit is an achene a few millimeters long. The plant reproduces from seed, but very rarely. The seeds do not disperse well and seedlings do not survive in large numbers. A narrow range of temperature and moisture is required for the reproduction of this species, so it is sporadic, but the plants are hardy and long-lived.

Coleogyne ramosissima produces stenophyllanin A, an ellagitannin. [6]

Related Research Articles

<i>Hesperis matronalis</i> Species of plant

Hesperis matronalis is an herbaceous plant species in the family Brassicaceae. It has numerous common names, including dame's rocket, damask-violet, dame's-violet, dames-wort, dame's gilliflower, night-scented gilliflower, queen's gilliflower, rogue's gilliflower, summer lilac, sweet rocket, mother-of-the-evening, and winter gilliflower.

<i>Eremalche rotundifolia</i> Species of flowering plant

Eremalche rotundifolia, the desert five-spot, is a flowering plant in the family Malvaceae, native to the Mojave Desert and Colorado Desert in the Southwestern United States.

<i>Prunus fasciculata</i> Species of tree

Prunus fasciculata, also known as wild almond, desert almond, or desert peach is a spiny and woody shrub producing wild almonds, native to the deserts of Arizona, California, Baja California, Nevada and Utah.

<i>Argemone munita</i> Species of flowering plant

Argemone munita is a species of prickly poppy known by the common names flatbud prickly poppy and chicalote. "Munita" means "armed", in reference to the many long prickles. This flower is native to California, where it is widespread throughout the western part of the state and its eastern deserts, on slopes to 10,000 feet, and along roadsides. Its range also extends into Baja California, Arizona, and Nevada.

Cryptantha confertiflora Species of flowering plant

Cryptantha confertiflora is a species of wildflower in the borage family known by the common names basin yellow catseye and Mojave popcorn flower. This is a common desert plant native to the southwestern United States. It is an erect perennial herb approaching half a meter in height. The stems grow from a woody caudex and form a rough clump of hairy, bristly gray-green leaves in dry, rocky areas. Out of the clump grow erect stems topped with dense inflorescences of hairy mustard-yellow flowers. Each flower is tubular with sepals wrapped around the tube below a flat-faced or curled-back corolla of five lobes. The fruit is a nutlet 3 to 4 millimeters wide.

Halimolobos jaegeri is a species of flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae known by the common names Mojave fissurewort, or Mojave halimolobos. It is native to the Mojave Desert and nearby mountain ranges of California and Nevada. It grows in rocky areas, such as the limestone cliffs and slopes of the desert mountains.

<i>Peritoma arborea</i>

Peritoma arborea, is a perennial shrub or bush in the spiderflower family (Cleomaceae) known by the common names bladderpod, bladderpod spiderflower and burro-fat. It has yellow flowers in bloom all months of the year. It emits a foul odor to discourage herbivory from insects.

Caulanthus glaucus is a species of flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae known by the common name glaucous wild cabbage.

<i>Caulanthus pilosus</i> Species of flowering plant

Caulanthus pilosus is a species of flowering plant in the family Brassicaceae known by the common names hairy wild cabbage and chocolate drops. It is native to open, dry habitat in the Great Basin of Nevada, the Eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada to 9,000 ft (2,700 m) and surrounding regions of the United States northward to the SE corner of Oregon. It is an annual or occasionally perennial herb coated in thin hairs, especially toward the base.

<i>Cleomella obtusifolia</i> Species of flowering plant

Cleomella obtusifolia is a species of flowering plant in the cleome family known by the common name Mojave stinkweed. It is native to the Mojave Desert and adjacent hills, where it grows in alkaline soils in the desert scrub. It is an annual herb producing a rough, hairy stem up to 90 centimeters long. The branching stem grows erect when new and then the branches droop to the ground with age, forming a bushy clump or mat. Each leaf is made up of three fleshy oval leaflets. Flowers appear in dense racemes on older stems and solitary in leaf axils on new stems. Each flower has generally four hairy green sepals and four yellow petals grouped together on one side of the involucre. The whiskery yellow stamens protrude up to 1.5 centimeters from the flower. The fruit is a hairy, valved capsule a few millimeters in length. It hangs at the tip of the remaining flower receptacle.

<i>Sesuvium verrucosum</i> Species of succulent

Sesuvium verrucosum is a species of flowering plant in the family Aizoaceae known by the common names western sea-purslane and verrucose sea-purslane. It is native to the Americas, where it can be found in the southwestern quadrant of the United States, Mexico, and parts of South America. It grows in many types of saline and alkaline habitat types on the coast and inland, including salt marshes and other saline wetlands, alkali flats, and drying desert washes. It is a perennial herb producing many branching prostrate stems up to a metre long, forming a mat up to two metres wide. The herbage is verrucose, covered densely in crystalline bumps. The stems are lined with leaves of varying shapes which measure up to 4 cm long. Flowers occur in the leaf axils. They have no petals, but the five, pointed sepals are generally bright pink to reddish or orange in color with a thick, verrucose outer surface. At the centre of the flower is a ring of stamens around the central ovary. The fruit is a capsule about 500 mm long containing many seeds.

<i>Thamnosma montana</i>

Thamnosma montana, the turpentine broom, or Mojave desert-rue, is a shrub in the citrus family Rutaceae. It is native to the deserts of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Except immediately after heavy rains, its straight stems usually lack leaves, giving it a broom-like appearance. The Latin specific epithet montana refers to mountains or coming from mountains.

<i>Tidestromia lanuginosa</i>

Tidestromia lanuginosa is a species of flowering plant in the family Amaranthaceae known by the common name woolly tidestromia.

Blackbush scrub, or blackbrush scrub, is a vegetation type of the Western United States deserts characterized by low growing, dark gray blackbush as the dominant species. Blackbush often occurs in pure stands, giving a uniform dark gray appearance to the landscape.

<i>Holmgrenanthe</i> Genus of flowering plants

Holmgrenanthe petrophila is a rare perennial desert plant in the plantain family (Plantaginaceae), and the sole species of the genus Holmgrenanthe. It forms low mats of branched stems growing from a woody base. The leaves have small spines along their edges. The solitary yellow flowers are tubular with five free lobes at the end, the upper two pointing backwards, the lower three projecting forwards. The species is known only from about ten locations, most in the Titus Canyon and the adjacent Fall Canyon, all within the Californian section of Death Valley National Park. It grows in limestone crevices on the canyon walls, often on the north face.

<i>Hilaria rigida</i> Species of tree

Hilaria rigida is a species of clumping perennial grass that is widespread in California deserts. It is commonly known as big galleta. It is a monocot in the Hilaria genus of the grass family (Poaceae).

The flora of the Colorado Plateau and Canyonlands region of the Western United States.

<i>Eremophila incisa</i> Species of flowering plant

Eremophila incisa is a flowering plant in the figwort family, Scrophulariaceae and is endemic to Western Australia. It is a low shrub with shiny leaves which have thickened teeth along their edges and hairy, mauve or purple flowers.

<i>Hypericum boreale</i> Species of flowering plant in the family Hypericaceae

Hypericum boreale, also known as northern St. John's-wort, is a short-lived perennial species of flowering plant in the family Hypericaceae, section Trigynobrathys.

<i>Croton alabamensis <span style="font-style:normal;">var.</span> texensis</i> Variety of flowering plant

Croton alabamensis var. texensis is a variety of Croton alabamensis that is endemic to the state of Texas in the United States. It is commonly known as the Texabama croton.

References

  1. "Coleogyne ramosissima". Germplasm Resources Information Network (GRIN). Agricultural Research Service (ARS), United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Retrieved 1 July 2009.
  2. 1 2 Turner, Raymond M. 1982. Great Basin desertscrub. In: Brown, David E., ed. Biotic communities of the American Southwest--United States and Mexico. Desert Plants. 4(1-4): 145–155.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Mojave Desert Wildflowers, Pam MacKay, p18, 252
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Canyon Country Wildflowers, Damian Fagan, p 3, 105
  5. 1 2 California Desert Flowers, Sia Morehardt, Emil Morehardt, p 232, 264
  6. Anti-tumor promoting activity of polyphenols from Cowania mexicana and Coleogyne ramosissima. Hideyuki Ito, Masateru Miyake, Eisei Nishitani, Kazuko Mori, Tsutomu Hatano, Takuo Okuda, Takao Konoshima, Midori Takasaki, Mutsuo Kozuka, Teruo Mukainaka, Harukuni Tokuda, Hoyoku Nishino and Takashi Yoshida, Cancer Letters, Volume 143, Issue 1, 23 August 1999, Pages 5-13, doi : 10.1016/S0304-3835(99)00160-3