PLANT : Generally leafless trees, divaricately branched, densely thorny, to 7 meters tall; glands prominent.

LEAVES : early deciduous, simple, oblong to obovate, 3-22 mm long, 2-5 mm wide.

FLOWERS : in a lax, open raceme; calyx teeth 0.8-1.5 mm long, shorter than the tube.

FRUIT : 4.2-5.3 mm long, glabrous except for marginal hairs at apex; with prominent glands.

NOTES : Sandy washes and roadsides where moisture collects: La Paz, Maricopa, Mohave, Pima, Yavapai, and Yuma, cos. (Fig. 2D); 60-750 m (200-2400 ft); mainly Jun; CA, NV; Baja C., Son., Mex.

REFERENCES : Rhodes, Suzanne, June Beasley and Tina Ayers. 2011. Fabaceae. CANOTIA 7: 1-13.

Common Name: smoketree

Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Tree

General: Shrub to small tree 1.5--8 m, generally leafless, gray-canescent.

Leaves: simple, 0.5--2 cm, oblanceolate, thick, gland-dotted, deciduous by early summer.

Flowers: Inflorescence: generally open, 5--15-flowered; axis ending as thorn; pedicels +- 1 mm, bractlets 2. Flower: calyx 4.5--5 mm, lobes < tube, glands forming lateral ring; corolla 6--8 mm, indigo-blue, glands +- 0.

Fruits: Fruit: >= calyx, plump-obovate, gland-dotted.

Ecology: Common. Desert washes; Elevation: < 400 m. flowers June-July, and occasionally in Oct-Nov.

Distribution: s CA, AZ; south to nw MEX

Synonyms: Asagraea spinosa, Dalea spinosa, Parosela spinosa, Psorodendron spinosum

Editor: pasted from Jepson, no editing