English: Turpentine broom; Mojave desert-rue.
Region: southwestern United States, northern Mexico.
Habitat: deserts; dry desert scrub, juniper woodland; among creosote, blackbrush, ephedra, Yucca, Joshua Tree.
Use: ceremonial drug; medicine and for pest control.
BotanyShrub
Stem: straight; usually lack leaves, broom-like appearance, except after heavy rains; branches many, straight, broom-like, yellow-green, 30 to 60 centimetres long; speckled with resin glands.
Leaves: small.
Inflorescence: at intervals along the stem.
Flowers: greenish base of blunt sepals; corolla is oval with rounded ends; petals royal purple, studded with visible resin glands, tips curve outward, revealing a protruding stigma and shorter yellow-tipped stamens.
Fruit: leathery, yellow-green, gland-spotted capsule, with two nearly separate rounded lobes.
Seeds: pale, kidney-shaped; 4 mm long each.
Dispersion: by animals