Coleogyne ramosissima

It is called blackbrush because the gray branches darken when wet by rains. It is a low lying, dark grayish-green, aromatic, spiny, perennial, soft wooded shrub. It has dense, intricate branches (ramosissima means many branched). Its dense branches form spiny tips. This plant forms vast pure stands across the desert floor and on scrubby slopes, giving the landscape a uniform dark-gray color. Vegetative types in which it dominates or is a codominate are called blackbrush scrub. it is drought desiduous (drops most of its leaves), but some leaves are usually retained at the end of the branches. Flowers have 4 yellowish sepals, many yellow stamens, and may have 4 or no petals. The leathery flowers grow at the ends of small stems. They are encased in thick, fuzzy sepals which are yellow inside and reddish or orange on the outer surface. There are no petals, but the sepals remain after the flower opens, surrounding the patch of whiskery stamens and the central pistil. The fruit is an achene a few millimeters long.