''Baccharis salicifolia'' is a blooming

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 ...

native to the sage scrub community and desert southwest of the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and northern

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, as well as parts of

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. Its usual common name is mule fat;Mojave Desert Wildflowers, Pam MacKay, 2nd ed., 2013, it is also called seepwillow or water-wally. This is a large bush with sticky foliage which bears plentiful small, fuzzy, pink, or red-tinged white

flower 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 ...

s which are highly attractive to butterflies. It is a host plant for the larval stage of the fatal metalmark butterfly, and the adult stage also nectars on the flowers. The long pointed

leaves A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, ...

may be toothed and contain three lengthwise veins. It is most common near water sources. The seed is wind-distributed.

Uses

The Kayenta

Navajo people The Navajo or Diné are an Native Americans in the United States, Indigenous people of the Southwestern United States. Their traditional language is Navajo language, Diné bizaad, a Southern Athabascan language. The states with the largest Din ...

use this plant in a compound infusion of plants used as a lotion for chills from immersion.Wyman, Leland C. and Stuart K. Harris 1951 The Ethnobotany of the Kayenta Navaho. Albuquerque. The University of New Mexico Press (p. 45) Another use is fire starting. Dried ''Baccharis salicifolia'' has a very low ignition temperature, very similar to the dried yucca stalk. It can be used for spindles and hand-drill shafts.

Galls

Mulefat plays host to several gall-inducing insect species including ''

Aceria baccharices ''Aceria baccharices'', also known as the mulefat leaf-blister mite and formerly known as ''Eriophyes baccharices'', is a species of arachnid native to North America that induces galls on two California willows, '' Baccharis salicifolia'' and '' ...

''.

References

External links