''Ziziphus obtusifolia'' is a species of flowering plant in the

buckthorn family The Rhamnaceae are a large family of flowering plants, mostly trees, shrubs, and some vines, commonly called the buckthorn family. Rhamnaceae is included in the order Rosales. The family contains about 55 genera and 950 species. The Rhamnaceae h ...

known by several common names, including lotebush, graythorn, gumdrop tree, and Texas buckthorn.US Forest Service Fire Ecology
/ref>

Distribution

The plant is native to the South Central and

Southwestern United States The Southwestern United States, also known as the American Southwest or simply the Southwest, is a geographic and cultural region of the United States that generally includes Arizona, New Mexico, and adjacent portions of California, Colorado, Ne ...

, the

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

deserts, and central through northern

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

. It grows in shrubby and scrubby

desert A desert is a barren area of landscape where little precipitation occurs and, consequently, living conditions are hostile for plant and animal life. The lack of vegetation exposes the unprotected surface of the ground to denudation. About on ...

habitats,

grassland A grassland is an area where the vegetation is dominated by grasses (Poaceae). However, sedge (Cyperaceae) and rush (Juncaceae) can also be found along with variable proportions of legumes, like clover, and other herbs. Grasslands occur natur ...

s and

prairie Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the ...

, woodlands, and other habitat types. It can be found among desert plants such as

honey mesquite ''Prosopis glandulosa'', commonly known as honey mesquite, is a species of small to medium-sized, thorny shrub or tree in the legume family (Fabaceae). Distribution The plant is primarily native to the Southwestern United States and Northern M ...

, smooth mesquite,

ocotillo ''Fouquieria splendens'' (commonly known as ocotillo (), but also referred to as buggywhip, coachwhip, candlewood, slimwood, desert coral, Jacob's staff, Jacob cactus, and vine cactus) is a plant indigenous to the Sonoran Desert and Chihuahuan ...

and

creosote Creosote is a category of carbonaceous chemicals formed by the distillation of various tars and pyrolysis of plant-derived material, such as wood or fossil fuel. They are typically used as preservatives or antiseptics. Some creosote types were ...

Description

''Ziziphus obtusifolia'' is a

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 ...

with many branches forming a thorny tangle which may exceed tall and approach at times. The leaves are

deciduous In the fields of horticulture and Botany, the term ''deciduous'' () means "falling off at maturity" and "tending to fall off", in reference to trees and shrubs that seasonally shed leaves, usually in the autumn; to the shedding of petals, aft ...

and are absent for much of the year, leaving the shrub a naked thicket of gray twigs coated in waxy whitish hairs. The ends of the twigs taper into sharp-tipped thorns. The thick, glandular gray or green leaves have oval blades 1 or 2 centimeters long. 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 a cluster of several dull yellow-green flowers. The fruit is a mealy, juicy

drupe In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is an indehiscent fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pit'', ''stone'', or '' pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed (''kernel'') ...

containing one seed. The fruit provides food for many species of birds and mammals. Birds use the shrub as a nesting site and the southern plains woodrat uses the twigs to build its houses.

References

External links

CalFlora Database: ''Ziziphus obtusifolia'' (Lotebush)NPIN−Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Native Plant Information Network: ''Ziziphus obtusifolia'' (Lotebush, Lote-bush condalia)CalFlora Database: ''Ziziphus obtusifolia'' var. ''canescens'' (Grey leaved Abrojo, graythorn, lotebush)Jepson Manual (JM2) eFlora: ''Ziziphus obtusifolia'' var. ''canescens''UC Photos gallery — ''Ziziphus obtusifolia'' var. ''canescens''
obtusifolia Flora of the California desert regions Flora of the Chihuahuan Desert Flora of Central Mexico Flora of Northeastern Mexico Flora of Northwestern Mexico Flora of Oklahoma Flora of the Sonoran Deserts North American desert flora Trees of the South-Central United States Trees of the Southwestern United States Natural history of the Colorado Desert Natural history of the Mojave Desert Flora without expected TNC conservation status {{Rhamnaceae-stub