Greasebush facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Greasebush
Scientific classification
Genus:	Glossopetalon
Species:	spinescens
Synonyms
Forsellesia arida (M.E.Jones) A.Heller Forsellesia nevadensis (A. Gray) A. Heller Forsellesia nevadensis (A.Gray) Greene Forsellesia planitierum Ensign Forsellesia spinescens (A.Gray) Greene Forsellesia stipulifera (H.St.John) Ensign Glossopetalon meionandrum Koehne Glossopetalon nevadense A.Gray Glossopetalon planitierum (Ensign) H.St.John Glossopetalon stipuliferum H.St.John

Glossopetalon spinescens is a species of flowering shrub in the family Crossosomataceae known by the common names spiny greasebush, spiny greasewood and Nevada greasewood.

It is native to the western United States and northern Mexico, where it grows in mountainous habitats, often on limestone substrates.

Description

This shrub forms a dense, erect clump of many thin, branching, thorny stems approaching 2 metres (6.6 ft) in maximum height. The green oval leaves are less than two centimeters long.

Small white-petalled flowers appear in the leaf axils. The fruit is a single or double follicle a few millimeters wide.

Two varieties are recognized:

var. spinescens from southeastern Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Chihuahua and Coahuila is early deciduous, the leaves either lacking stipules or with stipules less than 0.1 mm long

var. aridum M.E. Jones, from northwestern and central Arizona to California and Washington state, with leaves evergreen and with stipules up to 0.9 mm long.

Images for kids

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  Glossopetalon spinescens in the White Mountains, Nevada, 1715m (5620ft) elevation in early May. The flowers are pollinated and beginning to fruit, but not all the petals have been shed. Dehiscent, persistent follicles can be seen from the previous year. The leaves have largely been shed. The tips of the stems are beginning to die off; their sharp, tapered, hardened ends function as spines.