Common Name: knifeleaf condalia

Duration: Perennial

Nativity: Native

Lifeform: Shrub

General: Low rounded shrubs 0.5-1 m tall, with primary branches 10-40 cm long, distinctly curved like a bow, not usually thorn-tipped; secondary branches numerous with some thorn-tipped tertiary branches; bark grayish brown to almost black.

Leaves: Alternate or mostly in fascicles of 2-7 at the short shoots, blades with entire margins, spatulate, 4-12 mm long, 1.6-3 mm broad, broadest nearly a quarter to a a third the length from apex, mostly rounded apically; basally acuminate; grayish olive to tawny or brownish grayish olive, glabrous and often wrinkled, slightly paler beneath with a waxy appearance.

Flowers: Solitary in the axils or in fascicles of 2-5 at short shoots, appearing after summer rains, on slender pedicels, 2-3 mm long, elongating to 2-4.2 mm in fruit; sepals 1-1.5 mm long, purplish, no petals, stamens shorter than sepals, with fleshy, dark purple disk.

Fruits: Globose when mature, black, 3.5-4 mm long, 2.9-3.5 mm thick, bigger when moist, two-celled but usually with 1-seed.

Ecology: Found in New Mexico and Texas only-

Notes: Huge questions about this complex of species. Based on too few authorities and too few specimens.

Ethnobotany: Unknown

Etymology: Condalia is named after Antonio Condal, and 18th century Spanish physician and botanist, while spathulata means spatulate for the shape of its leaves.

Synonyms: None

Editor: SBuckley, 2010