''Tetradymia nuttallii'' is a species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common name Nuttall's horsebrush. It is native to the western United States, where it occurs in

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

Wyoming Wyoming () is a U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho to the west, Utah to the south ...

, and

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

.Howard, Janet L. 2002
''Tetradymia nuttallii''.
In: Fire Effects Information System, nline U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory. This

shrub A shrub (often also called a 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 ...

or subshrub has a stiff, branching network of stems reaching up to 1.2 meters in maximum height. Like other ''Tetradymia'', this species has two types of leaves. The larger, primary leaves become spines which may be over 2 centimeters in length. The

inflorescence An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem that is composed of a main branch or a complicated arrangement of branches. Morphologically, it is the modified part of the shoot of seed plants where flowers are formed o ...

is made up of a few

flower heads A pseudanthium (Greek for "false flower"; ) is an inflorescence that resembles a flower. The word is sometimes used for other structures that are neither a true flower nor a true inflorescence. Examples of pseudanthia include flower heads, compos ...

, each of which contains four bright yellow flowers. The fruit is well over a centimeter long, including its large pappus.''Tetradymia nuttallii''.
Flora of North America. The leaves fall off the plant during dry times. Also when it is dry the plant may not flower, or if it does, it does not produce fruits. This plant grows in habitat dominated by

shadscale ''Atriplex confertifolia'', the shadscale or spiny saltbush, is a species of evergreen shrub in the family Amaranthaceae, which is native to the western United States and northern Mexico. Description The height of ''Atriplex confertifolia'' vari ...

and

black greasewood ''Sarcobatus'' is a North American genus of two species of flowering plants, formerly considered to be a single species. Common names for ''S. vermiculatus'' include greasewood, seepwood, and saltbush. Traditionally, ''Sarcobatus'' has been ...

, as well as

sagebrush Sagebrush is the common name of several woody and herbaceous species of plants in the genus ''Artemisia''. The best known sagebrush is the shrub ''Artemisia tridentata''. Sagebrushes are native to the North American west. Following is an alph ...

and pinyon-juniper woodland. It grows in dry and sometimes rocky soils.

References

External links

The Nature Conservancy
{{Taxonbar, from=Q7706327 Senecioneae