General: Spiny Hopsage (Grayia spinosa) is a fairly low-growing, brushy shrub with pointed stems that become spines. The leaves are generally small, deciduous, and variable in shape and size. This species is dioecious: male plants produce terminal, spike-like staminate inflorescences, while female plants produce seeds attached to leaf-like bracts that turn red with age.

Spiny Hopsage is a fairly common component of desert vegetation communities in drier areas along washes, on bajadas, and into the lower mountains in the Lower Sonoran (Creosote-Bursage Flats) and Upper Sonoran (Mojave Desert Scrub) life zones.

Family: Goosefoot (Chenopodiaceae).

Plant Form: Upright, brushy shrub with spine-tipped branches.

Height: To about 3 feet.

Stems: Branches many, stiff; bark gray; twigs become spine-like.

Leaves: Deciduous; blade tiny to 1.5 inches, elliptic to oblanceolate; flat to fleshy, entire; petiole short.

Flowers: Male and female plants separate. Male plants produce small, terminal, spike-like staminate inflorescences; flower with 4 lobes, 4 stamens. Female plants produce pistillate inflorescences that grow along the outer stems and produce seeds attached to leaf-like bracts (2 bractlets) that turn red with age.

Seeds: Attached to bracts.

Habitat: Dry, desert areas with sandy or gravelly soils.

Elevation: About 1,500 to 9,000 feet; about 3,000 to 5,000 in southern Nevada.

Distribution: Western North America.

Comments: This is the only species in the genus Grayia.