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Bebbia juncea var.
aspera |
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Bebbia juncea var.
aspera |
Bebbia juncea var.
aspera |
| Trees and Shrubs of Kern County (Sep 2012) Bebbia juncea (Carphephorus junceus Bentham 1844) Greene 1885 var. aspera Greene 1885. Sweetbush. Rounded intricately branched subshrub, 0.5–1 m diam, the younger stems mostly green and leafless and rough to the touch when sliding fingers up the branch, minutely white bumpy; leaves soon deciduous, simple, opposite below, alternate above, narrow, 1–5 mm, with or without a few teeth in the mid region; flowering soon after rain throughout the year, most often Apr–Jul; flowers yellow, 27–70, all disc type, loosely enclosed by receptacular scales within a broad funnel-form head surrounded by bracts overlapping in 2–3 graduated series, the bracts sword-shape with a rounded base, scarious along margins, slightly recurved near tips in age; fruit: cypsela with pale whitish brown barbed bristles, 6–8 mm long; pericarpium stake-like in shape, 2–3 mm, with black with white appressed hairs. Common in and along margins of disturbed sand, gravel or rocky washes below 5,000 ft. in the California deserts, to southern Nevada, Texas, and Baja California—where the typical variety occurs. Type from southeastern border of CA/AZ. Kern Co.: Eastern Sierra Nevada, Sand Canyon (Moe). No records in CCH. In the field Arida appears similar in its rounded habit and intricate branching and in having yellow flowers, but is easily distinguished by the smooth stems and occurring more along shores of alkaline lakes; however, var. juncea, which does not occur in Kern Co., has smooth stems; thus, floral characters may be needed to distinguish the two genera. Stephanomeria pauciflora is also similar but easily identified by its milky latex.
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