Larrea tridentata
| Larrea tridentata | |
|---|---|
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| Larrea tridentata at Furnace Creek, Death Valley, California. | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Eudicots |
| (unranked): | Rosids |
| Order: | Zygophyllales |
| Family: | Zygophyllaceae |
| Genus: | Larrea |
| Species: | L. tridentata |
| Binomial name | |
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Larrea tridentata (DC.) Coville |
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Larrea tridentata is known as creosote bush and greasewood as a plant, 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.
It is a flowering plant in the family Zygophyllaceae. The specific name tridentata refers to its three-toothed leaves.
L. tridentata is a prominent species in the Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan Deserts of western North America, and its range includes those and other regions in portions of southeastern California, Arizona, southern Nevada, southwestern Utah, New Mexico, and Texas in the United States, and northern Chihuahua and Sonora in Mexico. The species grows as far east as Zapata County, Texas, along the Rio Grande southeast of Laredo near the 99th meridian west.
L. tridentata is an evergreen shrub growing to 1 to 3 m (3.3 to 9.8 ft) tall, rarely 4 m (13 ft). The stems of the plant bear resinous, dark green leaves with two opposite lanceolate leaflets joined at the base, with a deciduous awn between them, each leaflet 7 to 18 mm (0.28 to 0.71 in) long and 4 to 8.5 mm (0.16 to 0.33 in) broad. The flowers are up to 25 mm (0.98 in) in diameter, with five yellow petals. Galls may form by the activity of the creosote gall midge. The whole plant exhibits a characteristic odor of creosote, from which the common name derives. In the regions where it grows, its smell is often associated with the "smell of rain".
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Wikipedia