Thamnosma montana

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Thamnosma montana
Thamnosma montana 4.jpg
Status TNC G5.svg
Secure  (NatureServe)
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Plantae
(unranked): Angiosperms
(unranked): Eudicots
(unranked): Rosids
Order: Sapindales
Family: Rutaceae
Genus: Thamnosma
Species:T. montana
Binomial name
Thamnosma montana
Torr. & Frém.

Thamnosma montana, the turpentine broom, [1] 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. [2]

Shrub type of plant

A shrub or bush is a small- to medium-sized woody plant. Unlike herbs, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple stems and shorter height, and are usually under 6 m (20 ft) tall. Plants of many species may grow either into shrubs or trees, depending on their growing conditions. Small, low shrubs, generally less than 2 m (6.6 ft) tall, such as lavender, periwinkle and most small garden varieties of rose, are often termed "subshrubs".

Rutaceae family of plants

The Rutaceae are a family, commonly known as the rue or citrus family, of flowering plants, usually placed in the order Sapindales.

Genisteae tribe of plants, the brooms

Genisteae is a tribe of trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants in the subfamily Faboideae of the legume family Fabaceae. It includes a number of well-known plants including broom, lupine (lupin), gorse and laburnum.

Contents

Description

It is a shrub with many straight, broom-like, yellow-green, 30 to 60 centimetres long. Except after heavy rains, it is usually found without leaves.

Leaves and stems

Stems are speckled with resin glands. Leaves are small and occur only after rains, then fall off (drought deciduous).

Drought deciduous

Drought deciduous plants are those that drop their leaves during the dry season or periods of drought. Examples include plants of the California coastal sage scrub community, and the leeward Hawaiian dry forest tree, the wiliwili. This may be contrasted to deciduous plants that drop their leaves during cold periods, or evergreen plants that have green leaves year-round.

Inforescence and fruit

Flowers occur at intervals along the stem. Each has a greenish base of blunt sepals. The corolla is oval with rounded ends. The petals royal purple in color. Like most other parts of the plant, petals are studded with visible resin glands. The tips of the petals curve outward, revealing a protruding stigma and shorter yellow-tipped stamens.

Sepal part of a calyx

A sepal is a part of the flower of angiosperms. Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom. The term sepalum was coined by Noël Martin Joseph de Necker in 1790, and derived from the Greek σκεπη (skepi), a covering.

Gynoecium collective term for all carpels in a flower

Gynoecium is most commonly used as a collective term for the parts of a flower that produce ovules and ultimately develop into the fruit and seeds. The gynoecium is the innermost whorl of a flower, it consists of pistils and is typically surrounded by the pollen-producing reproductive organs, the stamens, collectively called the androecium. The gynoecium is often referred to as the "female" portion of the flower, although rather than directly producing female gametes, the gynoecium produces megaspores, each of which develops into a female gametophyte which then produces egg cells.

Stamen floral organ

The stamen is the pollen-producing reproductive organ of a flower. Collectively the stamens form the androecium.

The fruit is a leathery, yellow-green, gland-spotted capsule with two nearly separate rounded lobes. Within the capsule are pale, kidney-shaped seeds about 4 millimeters long each. The fruits are eaten by animals which then disperse the seeds. [3]

Biological dispersal movement of individuals from their birth site to their breeding site, as well as the movement from one breeding site to another

Biological dispersal refers to both the movement of individuals from their birth site to their breeding site, as well as the movement from one breeding site to another . Dispersal is also used to describe the movement of propagules such as seeds and spores. Technically, dispersal is defined as any movement that has the potential to lead to gene flow. The act of dispersal involves three phases: departure, transfer, settlement and there are different fitness costs and benefits associated with each of these phases. Through simply moving from one habitat patch to another, the dispersal of an individual has consequences not only for individual fitness, but also for population dynamics, population genetics, and species distribution. Understanding dispersal and the consequences both for evolutionary strategies at a species level, and for processes at an ecosystem level, requires understanding on the type of dispersal, the dispersal range of a given species, and the dispersal mechanisms involved.

Range and habitat

It grows in dry desert scrub, juniper woodland, and other desert plant communities. It grows among desert plants such as creosote, blackbrush, ephedra, and Yucca species such as Joshua Tree. [3]

<i>Larrea tridentata</i> species of plant

Larrea tridentata is known as creosote bush and greasewood as a plant, as chaparral as a medicinal herb, and as gobernadora in Mexico, Spanish for "governess", due to its ability to secure more water by inhibiting the growth of nearby plants. In Sonora, it is more commonly called hediondilla.

<i>Coleogyne</i> genus of plants

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

<i>Ephedra nevadensis</i> species of plant

Ephedra nevadensis is a species of Ephedra native to dry areas of western North America.

Uses and ecological interactions

Many Native American groups used it as a ceremonial drug, and held beliefs it could be used as a medicine and for pest control. [4]

Related Research Articles

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<i>Amorpha californica</i> species of plant

Amorpha californica is a species of flowering plant in the legume family known by the common name California false indigo.

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<i>Lysimachia fraseri</i> species of plant

Lysimachia fraseri is a rare species of flowering plant in the primrose family known by the common name Fraser's yellow loosestrife. It is native to the Southeastern United States, where it is listed as an endangered species in several states.

<i>Antirrhinum filipes</i> species of plant

Antirrhinum filipes is an annual species of North American snapdragon, usually known by the common name yellow twining snapdragon. This herbaceous plant is native to deserts of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, where it is common.

<i>Artemisia nova</i> species of plant

Artemisia nova is a North American species of sagebrush, known by the common name black sagebrush. It is "one of the most common shrubs in the western United States".

<i>Calochortus amabilis</i> species of plant

Calochortus amabilis is a species of the genus Calochortus in the family Liliaceae. It is also known by the common names Diogenes' lantern, yellow globe-tulip, golden globe-tulip, yellow globe lily, golden fairy lantern, golden lily-bell, Chinese lantern, and short lily.

<i>Ceanothus cordulatus</i> species of plant

Ceanothus cordulatus is a species of shrub in the buckthorn family Rhamnaceae known by the common names mountain whitethorn and whitethorn ceanothus. It is native to California and adjacent sections of Oregon, Nevada, and Baja California, where it grows on mountain ridges and other forested areas. This is a spreading shrub growing usually wider than tall and up to about 1.5 meters. The stems are gray, with the twigs yellow-green in color and fuzzy in texture when new. The evergreen leaves are alternately arranged and up to 3 centimeters long. Each is oval in shape with three ribs and generally not toothed. The leaves may be hairy or not. The inflorescence is panicle-shaped, up to about 4 centimeters long. The flowers are white to off-white with five sepals and five petals. The fruit is a rough, ridged capsule up to half a centimeter long. It has three valves inside, each containing a seed.

<i>Lewisia columbiana</i> species of plant

Lewisia columbiana is a species of flowering plant in the Montiaceae family known by the common name Columbian lewisia. It is native to the western United States and British Columbia, where it grows in rocky mountain habitat. It is a perennial herb growing from a short, thick taproot and caudex unit. It produces a basal rosette of many thick, fleshy, tapering, blunt-tipped or pointed leaves with smooth edges, each 2 to 10 centimeters long. The inflorescence arises on several stems up to about 30 centimeters tall, each stem bearing an array of up to 100 flowers each. Near the flowers are small, pointed bracts tipped with shiny spherical resin glands. The flower has 4 to 11 petals, each up to about a centimeter in length and oval in shape with a notched tip. The petals are white to pale pink, usually with sharp dark pink veining.

<i>Madia gracilis</i> species of plant

Madia gracilis is a species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common names grassy tarweed, slender tarweed, and gumweed madia.

<i>Menodora scabra</i> species of plant

Menodora scabra is broom-like shrub in the Olive Family (Oleaceae), known by the common name rough menodora or broom twinberry. It is a popular desert garden plant.

<i>Paxistima myrsinites</i> species of plant

Paxistima myrsinites is a species of shrub in the family Celastraceae. It is native to western North America from British Columbia to northern Mexico to the Rocky Mountains, where it grows in forests, often in the understory.

<i>Phyllodoce breweri</i> species of plant

Phyllodoce breweri is a species of flowering plant in the heath family known by the common names purple mountain heath and Brewer's mountain heather.

Polygala heterorhyncha is a species of flowering plant in the milkwort family known by the common names beaked spiny polygala and notch-beaked milkwort. It is native to southern Nevada and it is known from a few occurrences just over the border in the Funeral Mountains of California above Death Valley. It is a resident of desert scrub habitat. This desert plant is a perennial herb or small shrub growing in small clumpy mats. The thin, branching, thorny-tipped stems are somewhat waxy in texture and sometimes slightly hairy. They are lined sparsely with small oval, dull-pointed leaves. The inflorescence bears a few flowers, each with a winglike pair of bright pink sepals and a yellow-tipped central petal. The fruit is a vein-streaked capsule.

Linum marginale, known by the common name of native flax or Australian flax, is a short lived perennial flowering herb, native to Australia. A slender, wispy, upright plant, growing to around 1 metre high, Native Flax is often overlooked when not in flower. It should not be confused with species of Wahlenbergia, which occurs in the same area and can appear similarly. Like most species of Linum, Linum marginale can be used to produce useful fibre, but is not grown on a commercial level for this purpose. Native flax has small linear blue green leaves, often pushed quite close to the stem. To the untrained eye from a distance, in may appear to have no leaves. Unlike most other species of flax which have yellow flowers, Linum marginale beaks into sprays of large, electric blue flowers in spring and early summer. The flowers have five petals and form at the top of each wiry stem of the plant. Flowers are replaced in summer by small, globular, papery capsules, about 3 mm across, containing a cluster of buff coloured, sesame-like seeds. Like many southern Australian flowers, the plant dies back in summer, but reshoots the following autumn when the rains return.

<i>Lysimachia asperulifolia</i> species of plant

Lysimachia asperulifolia is a rare species of flowering plant in the Primulaceae known by the common name rough-leaved loosestrife and roughleaf yellow loosestrife. It is endemic to the Atlantic coastal plain in North Carolina and northern South Carolina in the United States, where there are 64 known populations. It is a federally listed endangered species of the United States.

<i>Ceanothus herbaceus</i> species of plant

Ceanothus herbaceus, also known as Jersey tea, is a species of shrub in the buckthorn family, Rhamnaceae and is similar to C. americanus and C. sanguineus. It is a perennial shrub which is native to North America.

<i>Euphorbia royleana</i> species of plant

Euphorbia royleana is a species of flowering plant in the Euphorbiaceae family. It is also known as Sullu spurge, and Royle's spurge. It is a succulent and almost cactus like in appearance although unrelated. It grows right across the Himalaya mountains from Pakistan, India, Bhutan, Myanmar, Nepal to western China, It prefers dry and rocky slopes between 1000 and 1500 meters, but has been found up to 2000 meters. Flowering and fruiting is in spring to early summer (March–July) and seeding is in June–October. It is used as a hedging plant in northern India and has medicinal uses.

<i>Cornulaca monacantha</i> species of plant

Cornulaca monacantha is a species of flowering plant in the genus Cornulaca, that is now included in the family Amaranthaceae,. It is a desert plant found in the Middle East and the Sahara, and the southern end of its range is considered to delineate the edge of the desert. In Arabic it is known as had and djouri, and the Tuareg people call it tahara. It was first described in 1813 by the French botanist Alire Raffeneau Delile.

References

  1. ↑ "Thamnosma montana". Natural Resources Conservation Service PLANTS Database. USDA . Retrieved 9 December 2015.
  2. ↑ Archibald William Smith A Gardener's Handbook of Plant Names: Their Meanings and Origins , p. 239, at Google Books
  3. 1 2 US Forest Service Fire Ecology
  4. ↑ Ethnobotany


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