''Tetracoccus hallii'' is a species of

flowering Flowers, also known as blooms and blossoms, are the reproductive structures of flowering plants ( angiosperms). Typically, they are structured in four circular levels, called whorls, around the end of a stalk. These whorls include: calyx, m ...

shrub A shrub or bush is a small to medium-sized perennial woody plant. Unlike herbaceous plants, shrubs have persistent woody stems above the ground. Shrubs can be either deciduous or evergreen. They are distinguished from trees by their multiple ...

in the family

Picrodendraceae Picrodendraceae is a family of flowering plants, consisting of 80 speciesStephens, P.F. (2001 onwards). Angiosperm Phylogeny Website. Version 9, June 2008. http://www.mobot.org/MOBOT/Research/APweb/ in 25 genera. These are subtropical to Tropics, ...

, known by the common names Hall's shrubby-spurge and Hall's tetracoccus.

Distribution

The plant is native to the

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert (; ; ) is a desert in the rain shadow of the southern Sierra Nevada mountains and Transverse Ranges in the Southwestern United States. Named for the Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous Mohave people, it is located pr ...

and

Sonoran Desert The Sonoran Desert () is a hot desert and ecoregion in North America that covers the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, as well as part of the Southwestern United States (in Arizona and California). It ...

: in southeastern

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

, southern

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

, and western

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

in the U.S.; and

Baja California Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of B ...

state in Mexico. It grows in many types of desert habitat, including

creosote bush scrub Creosote bush scrub is a North American desert vegetation type (or biome) of sparsely but evenly spaced desert plants dominated by creosote bush (''Larrea tridentata'') and its associates. Its visual characterization is of widely spaced shrubs th ...

, at elevations below . It is abundant and widespread in

Joshua Tree National Park Joshua Tree National Park is a List of national parks of the United States, US National Park located in southeastern California, straddling north-central Riverside County, California, Riverside County and part of southern San Bernardino County, ...

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...

.Miriti, M. N. (2007). Twenty years of changes in spatial association and community structure among desert perennials. ''Ecology'' 88:5 1177-90.

Description

''Tetracoccus hallii'' is a bushy, branching

, hairless in texture except for the new twigs, which have rough hairs. The small leaves occur in clusters along the branches, each leathery, teardrop-shaped leaf measuring just a few millimeters long. The plant is

dioecious Dioecy ( ; ; adj. dioecious, ) is a characteristic of certain species that have distinct unisexual individuals, each producing either male or female gametes, either directly (in animals) or indirectly (in seed plants). Dioecious reproduction is ...

, with male and female individuals producing different types of flowers. The

staminate The stamen (: stamina or stamens) is a part consisting of the male reproductive organs of a flower. Collectively, the stamens form the androecium., p. 10 Morphology and terminology A stamen typically consists of a stalk called the filament ...

flowers occur in clusters, each flower with 4 to 6 rounded

sepal A sepal () is a part of the flower of angiosperms (flowering plants). Usually green, sepals typically function as protection for the flower in bud, and often as support for the petals when in bloom., p. 106 Etymology The term ''sepalum'' ...

s and 4 to 8 erect stamens. The

pistillate Gynoecium (; ; : gynoecia) is most commonly used as a collective term for the parts of a flower that produce ovules and ultimately develop into the fruit and seeds. The gynoecium is the innermost whorl of a flower; it consists of (one or more) ...

flower occurs singly. Its bloom period is January through May, from the lower Sonoran to the higher Mojave deserts. It produces a rounded, woolly fruit with usually three chambers. The fruit is around a centimeter long when mature and contains one or two seeds per chamber.

References

External links

Calflora Database: ''Tetracoccus hallii'' (Hall's purple bush, Hall's shrubby spurge, Holly leaved spurge)Jepson Manual eFlora (TJM2) treatment of ''Tetracoccus hallii'' USDA Plants Profile for ''Tetracoccus hallii'' (Hall's shrubby-spurge)UC CalPhotos gallery of ''Tetracoccus hallii''
Picrodendraceae Flora of the California desert regions Flora of the Sonoran Deserts Flora of Arizona Flora of Baja California Flora of Nevada Natural history of the Colorado Desert Natural history of the Mojave Desert Taxa named by Townshend Stith Brandegee Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Malpighiales-stub

Distribution

Description

See also

References

External links