General: Fremont's Chaffbush (Amphipappus fremontii) is a low, mounded, many branched but densely packed shrub most easily recognized by the thin, white, pointed branches. The leaves are small and oval. Yellow flowerheads develop at the tips of fresh growth in the spring.

Fremont's Chaffbush is a locally common component of desert vegetation communities on well-drained sandy, gravelly, and rocky soils in canyons and on slopes into the lower mountains in the Upper Sonoran (Mojave Desert Scrub and Pinyon-Juniper Woodland) life zone.

Family: Sunflower (Asteraceae).

Plant Form: Low, mounted shrub.

Height: To about 18 inches (3 feet).

Bark: Light gray to white.

Stems: Many branches, twigs thin.

Leaves: Blade usually less than 1-inch long (to about 1-3/4 inches), oval, edge entire near the stem, serrate towards the tip.

Flowers: Blooms late spring. Inflorescence: raceme about 1-1/2 inches long with up to 8 flowers. Flowers: petals to about 1/2-inch long, white.

Seeds:

Habitat: Dry, well-drained sandy, gravelly, and rocky soils on upper bajadas and moderate slopes in the lower mountains.

Elevation: To about 5,000 feet.

Distribution: Mojave Desert from California to Utah and Arizona.

Comments:

There are two varieties of chaffbush in southern Nevada:

Fresh growth (twigs, peduncles, and leaves) without hairs (NE Mojave Desert)

• Amphipappus fremontii var. fremontii

Fresh growth (twigs, peduncles, and leaves) densely covered with short, stiff hairs (east and central Mojave Desert)

• Amphipappus fremontii var. spinosus.