Better known as “smoketree,” this silvery-gray, seemingly leafless shrub
grows in and along sandy washes below 1,500 feet, throughout the
Mojave-Colorado Desert. At a distance it resembles a plume of smoke
rising from a campfire. Its small but violet to indigo flowers cover it
with a gorgeous blue blanket in May, making it one of the really
handsome desert shrubs. It requires ample supplies of water, hence is
restricted to washes that carry runoff from both winter rains and summer
downpours. The seeds sprout readily, and the seedlings with their
well-formed leaves look very unlike their parents. Few seedlings survive
the hazards of drought or being smothered by sand carried down the
washes by flash floods following cloudbursts.
_Dalea spinosa_ Pea Family
[Illustration: SMOKE-THORN]