[Illustration: Encelia farinosa]
Common names: BRITTLEBUSH, (_INCIENSO_)
Arizona and California deserts: (_Encelia farinosa_). Yellow.
November-May.
Sunflower family. Size: Perennial shrubs, 2 to 3 feet high.
These low, branching shrubs with gray-green leaves are common on rocky
slopes and benches where they lighten the winter landscape with their
bright flower heads and create a spectacular mass of bloom during early
spring. Flower stems rise several inches above the brittle leaf-covered
branches, thus hiding the plant under a blanket of blossoms at the
height of the blooming period.
Plants are abundant on rocky slopes below 3,000 feet from southern
Nevada to Lower California and eastward through Arizona.
Stems exude a gum prized as incense by the early-day Catholic priests.
Indians chewed this gum, and also heated it to smear on their bodies for
the relief of pain.