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Ambrosia dumosa – White bursage

 

Names

Scientific Name: Ambrosia dumosa

Synonym: Franseria dumosa

Common Names: White bursage, burrobush, burrowed, chicurilla, hierba de burro

Characteristics

Duration: Perennial

Growth Habit: Shrub

Arizona Native Status: Native

Habitat: Desert, washes, gentle slopes, bare soil (grows in fine, valley soils, while triangleleaf bursage grows on rocky or caliche soils)

Flower Color: Yellow-green

Flowering Season: Late winter to spring, depending on rainfall

Height: 8 to 24 inches

Description: This small shrub has many slender, stiff branches forming a rounded crown. Leaves are soft and gray-white, covered with tiny hairs and deeply divided. Bursage sheds its leaves during extended drought.

Special Characteristics

Bursage is abundant in upland Sonoran Desert and widely propagated for desert revegetation projects. It is considered a foodplant for black-tailed jackrabbits and kangaroo rats as well as other rodents. Bursage often shelters pincushion cacti..

Classification

Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae

SOURCES:

Marshall, K. Anna. 1994. Ambrosia dumosa. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer).
Available: fs.fed.us/database/feis/ [2013, October 8].

Phillips, S. J. and P. W. Comus. 2000. A Natural History of the Sonoran Desert. Tucson: Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum Press.

 

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