''Symphoricarpos longiflorus'' is a species of flowering plant in the
honeysuckle family known by the common names desert snowberry and fragrant snowberry. It is native to the western United States from the
Great Basin
The Great Basin () is the largest area of contiguous endorheic watersheds, those with no outlets to the ocean, in North America. It spans nearly all of Nevada, much of Utah, and portions of California, Idaho, Oregon, Wyoming, and Baja Californi ...
to western
Texas
Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
, as well as northwestern Mexico (
Sonora
Sonora (), officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Sonora (), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Administrative divisions of Mexico, Federal Entities of Mexico. The state is divided into Municipalities of Sonora, 72 ...
,
Chihuahua,
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 ...
).
[SEInet, Southwestern Biodiversity, Arizona chapter]
photos, description, distribution mapJones, George Neville 1940. A monograph of the genus ''Symphoricarpos''. Journal of the Arnold Arboretum 21(2): 201-252
/ref>
''Symphoricarpos longiflorus'' grows in rocky desert habitat, sagebrush
Sagebrush is the common name of several woody and herbaceous species of plants in the genus ''Artemisia (plant), Artemisia''. The best-known sagebrush is the shrub ''Artemisia tridentata''. Sagebrush is native to the western half of North Amer ...
, chaparral
Chaparral ( ) is a shrubland plant plant community, community found primarily in California, southern Oregon, and northern Baja California. It is shaped by a Mediterranean climate (mild wet winters and hot dry summers) and infrequent, high-intens ...
, forests, woodlands, and other habitat. It is most often found in dry habitat types.[US Forest Service Fire Ecology]
/ref>
''Symphoricarpos longiflorus'' is an erect, spreading 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 ...
with many stiff branches, reaching up to about a meter (40 inches) in height. It is hairless to lightly hairy and sometimes glandular, and the branches may be lined with tiny spines. The bark is reddish and ages white and shreddy. The thick, fuzzy, green or blue-tinged leaves are generally lance-shaped, sometimes with rounded tips. They are usually no more than 2 centimeters (0.8 inches) long. The fragrant flowers occur singly or in pairs in leaf axils, or are borne in a small raceme
A raceme () or racemoid is an unbranched, indeterminate growth, indeterminate type of inflorescence bearing flowers having short floral stalks along the shoots that bear the flowers. The oldest flowers grow close to the base and new flowers are ...
. Each flower has a long, slender, tubular throat up to 1.5 centimeters (0.6 inch) long, and a spreading face with five pointed lobes. The tube is bright to pale pink or cream in color, and the face of the corolla may be lighter in tone. The fruit is a dry drupe
In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is a type of fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pip'' (UK), ''pit'' (US), ''stone'', or ''pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed ...
under a centimeter wide with two seeds.[
]
References
External links
Jepson Manual TreatmentCalphotos Photo gallery, University of California
longiflorus
Flora of the Western United States
Plants described in 1873
Flora of Northwestern Mexico
Flora without expected TNC conservation status
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