''Psorothamnus spinosus'', or ''Delea spinosa'', is a

perennial A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives more than two years. The term ('' per-'' + '' -ennial'', "through the years") is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter-lived annuals and biennials. The term is also widel ...

legume A legume () is a plant in the family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or the fruit or seed of such a plant. When used as a dry grain, the seed is also called a pulse. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consumption, for livestock for ...

tree of the deserts in North America.

Common name In biology, a common name of a taxon or organism (also known as a vernacular name, English name, colloquial name, country name, popular name, or farmer's name) is a name that is based on the normal language of everyday life; and is often contrast ...

s include smokethorn, smoketree, smoke tree, smokethorn dalea, and corona de Cristo. Blue Flower Anza-Borrego

Distribution

''P. Spinosus'' is native to the desert washes in the

Colorado Desert California's Colorado Desert is a part of the larger Sonoran Desert. It encompasses approximately , including the heavily irrigated Coachella and Imperial valleys. It is home to many unique flora and fauna. Geography and geology The Colorado D ...

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban ...

, the

Sonoran Desert The Sonoran Desert ( es, Desierto de Sonora) is a desert in North America and ecoregion that covers the northwestern Mexican states of Sonora, Baja California, and Baja California Sur, as well as part of the southwestern United States (in Ariz ...

in western

Arizona Arizona ( ; nv, Hoozdo Hahoodzo ; ood, Alĭ ṣonak ) is a state in the Southwestern United States. It is the 6th largest and the 14th most populous of the 50 states. Its capital and largest city is Phoenix. Arizona is part of the Fou ...

, and most of eastern

Baja California Baja California (; 'Lower California'), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Baja California), is a state in Mexico. It is the northernmost and westernmost of the 32 federal entities of Mex ...

state including several northern

Gulf of California The Gulf of California ( es, Golfo de California), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Bermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja C ...

(Sea of Cortez) islands, The tree is common in

Joshua Tree National Park Joshua Tree National Park is an American national park in southeastern California, east of San Bernardino and Los Angeles and north of Palm Springs. It is named after the Joshua trees (''Yucca brevifolia'') native to the Mojave Desert. Origin ...

, where it is called the smoketree. The range of ''P. spinosus'' is centered north-south along the

Lower Colorado River Valley The Lower Colorado River Valley (LCRV) is the river region of the lower Colorado River of the southwestern United States in North America that rises in the Rocky Mountains and has its outlet at the Colorado River Delta in the northern Gulf of C ...

ranging northwest into the eastern

Mojave Desert The Mojave Desert ( ; mov, Hayikwiir Mat'aar; es, Desierto de Mojave) is a desert in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada mountains in the Southwestern United States. It is named for the indigenous Mojave people. It is located primarily ...

, west into mostly all of the

-(subsection of Sonoran Desert), and east of the

Colorado River The Colorado River ( es, Río Colorado) is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and northern Mexico. The river drains an expansive, arid watershed that encompasses parts of seven U.S. s ...

in southwestern Arizona's

. To the west in

it borders the western Gulf of California; it occurs on the islands there including

Isla Ángel de la Guarda Isla Ángel de la Guarda, (Guardian Angel Island) also called Archangel Island, is a large island in the Gulf of California (Sea of Cortez) east of Bahía de los Ángeles in northwestern Mexico, separated from the Baja California Peninsula by ...

, but not

Tiburon Island Tiburon (Spanish ''Tiburón'', "shark") may refer to: Places ;United States * Tiburon, California * Tiburón Golf Club Naples, Florida * Tiburon Peninsula (California), a peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area of California ;Mexico * Tiburón Is ...

. To the east in

Sonora Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Sonora), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is divided into 72 municipalities; the ...

, the species ranges into the northwest of the great Gran Desierto de Altar, on the northern shore of the Gulf of California. In Arizona, the RangeMap also shows that the ranges center on the river courses of southwest Arizona, specifically, the Bill Williams River in the north, then the

Gila River The Gila River (; O'odham ima Keli Akimel or simply Akimel, Quechan: Haa Siʼil, Maricopa language: Xiil) is a tributary of the Colorado River flowing through New Mexico and Arizona in the United States. The river drains an arid watershed of ...

in the south. The range also extends into extreme southern Nevada, mostly adjacent the Colorado River.

References

External links

Calflora Database: ''Psorothamnus spinosus'' (smoke tree)

Jepson Manual Treatment for ''Psorothamnus spinosus''

USDA Plants Profile of ''Psorothamnus spinosus'' (smoke tree)

UC Photos gallery — ''Psorothamnus spinosus''

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center−NPIN database: ''Psorothamnus spinosus''
— ''with gallery''. {{Taxonbar, from=Q7256142 spinosus Flora of the California desert regions Flora of the Coachella Valley Flora of Riverside County, California Flora of the Sonoran Deserts Trees of the Southwestern United States Trees of Northwestern Mexico Natural history of the Colorado Desert Natural history of the Mojave Desert Gran Desierto de Altar Gila River Islands of the Gulf of California Yuma Desert Flora without expected TNC conservation status