''Phaulothamnus'' is a genus of plants formerly included in the family

Phytolaccaceae Phytolaccaceae is a family of flowering plants. Though almost universally recognized by taxonomists, its circumscription has varied. It is also known as the Pokeweed family. The APG II system, of 2003 (unchanged from the APG system, of 1998), a ...

but now considered a part of the

Achatocarpaceae The Achatocarpaceae are a family of woody flowering plants consisting of two genera and 11 known species, and has been recognized by most taxonomists. The family is found from the southwestern United States south to tropical and subtropical So ...

. Only one species is recognized: ''Phaulothamnus spinescens'' A. Gray, native to

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

Tamaulipas Tamaulipas (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tamaulipas ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Tamaulipas), is a state in the northeast region of Mexico; one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Federal Entiti ...

, Nuevo León, Sonora and

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 ...

.Flora of North America v 4 p 13, ''Phaulothamnus spinescens''
This is a branching shrub with juicy berries. Common names includes devilqueen, snake-eyes or putia. ''Phaulothamnus spinescens'' is a branching shrub up to 250 cm tall, with spines along the branches. Leaves are broader than wide, up to 35 mm wide but rarely more than 12 mm long. Flowers are borne one at a time or in

racemes A raceme ( or ) or racemoid is an unbranched, 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 produced as the s ...

. Fruits are

spherical A sphere () is a geometrical object that is a three-dimensional analogue to a two-dimensional circle. A sphere is the set of points that are all at the same distance from a given point in three-dimensional space.. That given point is the ce ...

, juicy, white to greenish with the black seeds visible through the thin fruit wall.Shreve, F. & I. L. Wiggins. 1964. Vegetation and Flora of the Sonoran Desert 2 vols. Stanford University Press, Stanford.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q9058989 Monotypic Caryophyllales genera Caryophyllales Flora of Texas Flora of Tamaulipas Flora of Nuevo León Flora of Sonora Flora of Baja California