White Bursage (Ambrosia dumosa) is a short, rounded shrub that often looks like a low mound of white, lifeless twigs. In the spring, however, it puts on a dense covering of short, lobed leaves and inconspicuous flowers. The flowers are green and spike-like, and the fruits are spiny.

White Bursage is one of the two signature plants of the southwestern deserts, but it generally remains unnoticed beneath the taller creosote bushes with which it shares the landscape on flats and lower slopes in the Lower Sonoran (Creosote-Bursage Flats) and Upper Sonoran (Mojave Desert Scrub) life zones.

Around Las Vegas, look for this species in any lower-elevation desert area.

Family: Sunflower (Asteraceae).

Other names: burrobush, burroweed.

Plant Form: Low, rounded shrub with many branches emerging from the ground and radiating up and outward. The stems generally are crooked and divided.

Height: Generally less than knee-high (about 1.5 feet); maximum about 2 feet.

Leaves: 3/4 inch long; light colored (smoke colored) due to dense, short, light-colored hairs. Pinnately divided several times. Leaves present only after rain.

Flowers: greenish; no petals; about 1/8 inch wide. Flowers on a terminal spike. Blooms spring to fall.

Seeds: Fruits 1/4-inch long, spiny (not hooked).

Elevation: up to about 3,000 ft.

Distribution: Southern California deserts east to southwestern Utah and eastern Arizona.

Comments: This is one of the most abundant shrubs in the lower-elevation deserts.