Thamnosma montana

Last updated

Thamnosma montana
Thamnosma montana 4.jpg
Status TNC G5.svg
Secure  (NatureServe)
Scientific classification OOjs UI icon edit-ltr.svg
Kingdom: Plantae
Clade: Tracheophytes
Clade: Angiosperms
Clade: Eudicots
Clade: Rosids
Order: Sapindales
Family: Rutaceae
Genus: Thamnosma
Species:
T. montana
Binomial name
Thamnosma montana

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]

Contents

Description

It is a shrub with many infrequently branched, more or less straight, broom-like, yellow-green, 30 to 60 centimeter long stems. It is usually found without leaves except after ground soaking rains, when leaves form and persist for several weeks. Peak flowering is in March, especially in wet years. [3]

Leaves and stems

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

Inflorescence 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.

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. [4]

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. [4]

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. [5]

Related Research Articles

<i>Hypericum</i> Genus of flowering plants known as St. Johns worts

Hypericum is a genus of flowering plants in the family Hypericaceae. The genus has a nearly worldwide distribution, missing only from tropical lowlands, deserts and polar regions. Many Hypericum species are regarded as invasive species and noxious weeds. All members of the genus may be referred to as St. John's wort, and some are known as goatweed. The white or pink flowered marsh St. John's worts of North America and eastern Asia are generally accepted as belonging to the separate genus TriadenumRaf.

<i>Philadelphus lewisii</i> Species of flowering plant

Philadelphus lewisii, the Lewis' mock-orange, mock-orange, Gordon's mockorange, wild mockorange,Indian arrowwood, or syringa, is a deciduous shrub native to western North America, and is the state flower of Idaho.

<i>Tripleurospermum inodorum</i> Species of flowering plant

Tripleurospermum inodorum, common names scentless false mayweed, scentless mayweed, scentless chamomile, and Baldr's brow, is the type species of Tripleurospermum. This plant is native to Eurasia and North Africa, and introduced to North America, where it is commonly found in fields, fallow land and gardens.

This page provides a glossary of plant morphology. Botanists and other biologists who study plant morphology use a number of different terms to classify and identify plant organs and parts that can be observed using no more than a handheld magnifying lens. This page provides help in understanding the numerous other pages describing plants by their various taxa. The accompanying page—Plant morphology—provides an overview of the science of the external form of plants. There is also an alphabetical list: Glossary of botanical terms. In contrast, this page deals with botanical terms in a systematic manner, with some illustrations, and organized by plant anatomy and function in plant physiology.

<i>Coleogyne</i> Genus of flowering 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>Collomia grandiflora</i> Species of flowering plant

Collomia grandiflora is a western North American annual plant in the phlox family (Polemoniaceae), known by the common names grand collomia, large-flowered mountain trumpet, and large-flowered collomia. It usually appears in sandy habitats and is cultivated as an ornamental.

<i>Euphorbia misera</i> Species of flowering plant

Euphorbia misera is a semi-succulent shrub in the genus Euphorbia commonly known as the cliff spurge or coast spurge. A drought-deciduous shrub, it is typically found as a gnarled, straggly plant occupying seashore bluffs, hills and deserts. Like other members of its genus, it has a milky sap, which can be found exuding out of the light gray bark when damaged. The alternately-arranged leaves are round and folded in the middle, with small hairs on them. The "flowers" can be found blooming year-round, and are colored maroon or yellow in the center with 5 white to light-yellow petal-like appendages attached outside. This species is native to the Baja California peninsula and Sonora in Mexico, and the coast of southern California in the United States, where it is a rare species. It is threatened in some localities by the development of its coastal habitat, which tends to be prime locations for high-end residential and commercial developments.

<i>Lysimachia fraseri</i> Species of flowering 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>Neogaerrhinum filipes</i> Species of flowering plant

Neogaerrhinum filipes, synonym Antirrhinum filipes, is an annual species of North American flowering plant in the family Plantaginaceae. It is 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>Balsamorhiza sagittata</i> Species of flowering plant

Balsamorhiza sagittata is a North American species of flowering plant in the tribe Heliantheae of the family Asteraceae known by the common name arrowleaf balsamroot. Also sometimes called Oregon sunflower, it is widespread across western Canada and much of the western United States.

<i>Ceanothus cordulatus</i> Species of flowering plant

Ceanothus cordulatus is a species of shrub in the 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. It is a nitrogen-fixing plant, that is uniquely abundant in old-growth forest conditions when compared to similar types of nitrogen-fixing plants. In addition, Ceanothus cordulatus is known to be an important source of nitrogen patches for significantly longer times than other similar post-disturbance successional shrubs, following disturbance events such as forest fires.

<i>Madia gracilis</i> Species of flowering plant

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

<i>Menodora scabra</i> Species of shrub

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>Phyllodoce breweri</i> Species of flowering plant

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

Rhinotropis heterorhyncha, synonym 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.

<i>Ribes hudsonianum</i> Species of fruit and plant

Ribes hudsonianum is a North American species of currant, known by the common name northern black currant.

<i>Trianthema portulacastrum</i> Species of succulent

Trianthema portulacastrum is a species of flowering plant in the ice plant family known by the common names desert horsepurslane, black pigweed, and giant pigweed. It is native to areas of several continents, including Africa and North and South America, and present as an introduced species in many other areas. It grows in a wide variety of habitat types and it can easily take hold in disturbed areas and cultivated land as a weed.

<i>Ipomoea lacunosa</i> Species of flowering plant

Ipomoea lacunosa, the whitestar, white morning-glory or pitted morning-glory, is a species that belongs to the genus Ipomoea. In this genus most members are commonly referred to as "morning glories". The name for the genus, Ipomoea, has roots in the Greek words ips and homoios, which translates to worm-like. This is a reference to the plant's vine-like growth. Lacunosa comes from a Latin word meaning air spaces, correlating with the venation of the leaves. Ipomoea lacunosa is native to the United States and grows annually. The flowers of this species are usually white and smaller than most other morning glories.

<i>Ceanothus herbaceus</i> Species of flowering plant

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

<i>Euphorbia royleana</i> Species of plant in the family Euphorbiaceae

Euphorbia royleana is a species of flowering plant in the family Euphorbiaceae. 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.

References

  1. USDA, NRCS (n.d.). "Thamnosma montana". The PLANTS Database (plants.usda.gov). Greensboro, North Carolina: National Plant Data Team. 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. https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/68403-Thamnosma-montana
  4. 1 2 US Forest Service Fire Ecology
  5. Ethnobotany