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Spiny Hopsage (Grayia spinosa)
Shrubs Around Las Vegas, Vegetation Around Las Vegas |
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General: Spiny Hopsage (Grayia spinosa) is a fairly low-growing, densely bushy shrub with pointed stems that become spines. The leaves are generally small 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. The seeds are attached to two, leaf-like bracts.
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). |
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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. |
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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. |
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Leaves are variable on same plant: leaves here are small and fleshy... |
... but on same plant, these leaves are larger and flatter |
Typical, gray, rounded leaves |
Typical, gray, rounded leaves |
Fresh growing stem lax with elongate leaves |
Older stem stiffer with more rounded, more gray leaves |
Stems with thorny tips |
Stem with thorny tip |
Staminate (male) inflorescences; flower with 4 lobes, 4 stamens |
Young pistillate (female) inflorescence |
Female plant with developing fruits |
Female plant with developing fruits |
Developing pistillate (female) inflorescences |
Older pistillate (female) inflorescences: bracts turn red with age |
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Seeds attached to leaf-like bracts (2 bractlets each) |
Seeds attached to leaf-like bracts (2 bractlets each) |
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Note: All distances, elevations, and other facts are approximate. Names generally follow the USDA database.
; Last updated 240625 |
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