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HANDBOOK 14 8, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



4. Leaves green when mature, more or less whitish-scurfy with 



star-shaped hairs when young, somewhat fleshy, rather 



narrow, usually not more than 2 inches long and }{ inch wide ; 



pollen- and seed-producing flowers separate, borne on the 



same or on different plants; fruits distinctive. 



5. Leaves linear, to 1/g inch wide, some of the lower ones 



often opposite, dark green; pollen-producing flowers in 



scaly, spikelike end clusters; seed-producing flowers small, 



1 or 2 in upper leaf axils; fruits top-shaped with encircling 



wing near middle; wood green, fibrous, very hard; bark 



whitish to gray or brownish ; much branched shrubs to 8 or 



10 feet high, often in almost pure stands in alkaline flats 



or low, moist sites ; poisonous to livestock if eaten to excess; 



s. and e. Oreg., e. Wash. 



black greasewood (Sarcobatus vermiculatus) . 

 5. Leaves reverse-lance-shaped, to % inch wide, pale or 

 gray green; pollen-producing flowers clustered in leaf axils; 

 seed-producing flowers crowded in spikelike end clusters; 

 each seed enclosed in a united, saclike pair of narrowly 

 margined, greenish white or reddish bracts; bark dark 

 gray, shreddy ; bushy-branched shrubs to 3 or 4 feet high ; 

 dry, rocky sites, e. Oreg., e. Wash. 



spiny hopsage (Grayia spinosa). 



New leaves clustered in 

 axil of old leafstalk base 

 (enlarged) 



Fruit (enlarged) 



F-494015 



Spiny hopsage 



