Noticeable Plants 65 



leaves and purplish gray, much-interlaced stems and 

 twigs. Flowers deep claret color: seed-vessels small, 

 round, prickly. Blooms in mid- and late spring. 



Larrea glandulosa. Creosote bush, Greasewood, Hediondia. 

 The commonest and most widely distributed shrub of 

 the desert, growing up to 12 feet high, in strong, some- 

 what brittle stems diverging from the ground. The 

 branches and twigs are regularly marked with rings. 

 Leaves small, glossy, bright dark green, sticky, with 

 strong tarry odor: flowers profuse, bright yellow, ma- 

 turing to small, round, woolly seed-vessels. Blooms from 

 mid-spring to mid-summer. 



Lycium andersonii. A strong bush usually 4 or 5 feet high, 

 but in open desert a low patch of stiff intertangled 

 stems. Leaves small, gray: flowers few and small, 

 tubular, pale lilac: fruit a small, transparent, edible 

 (but insipid) red berry. Blooms in mid-spring. 



Malvastrum rotundifolium. Five-spot. A small, upstanding, 

 hairy plant, often branching, with roundish leaves and 

 handsome cup- or globe-shaped flowers of pale lilac 

 with a carmine spot at base of each of the five petals. 

 Blooms in late spring. 



Martynia proboscidea. Elephant's trunk, Devil's claw. A 

 rank, weedy plant, not common, with large, roundish 

 leaves and a few handsome flowers, white with yellow 

 and purple markings. The seed-vessels are dispropor- 

 tionately large, from 6 to 10 inches long, curved and 

 tapering, splitting as they dry into two long, springy 

 horns connected at base. Blooms in summer and into 

 autumn. 



Mentzelia involucrata. A plant of the open desert, a foot 

 or more high, with thistly-looking, gray leaves and very 

 handsome, large, satiny flowers, white or creamy with 

 fine vermilion pencilling. Blooms in mid-spring. 



Mirabilis aspera. A small, bushy plant with slender 

 branching stems and grayish leaves, found near the 

 base of mountains. Flowers white, primrose-like, open- 

 ing at evening. Blooms in late spring. 



