Names
Scientific Name: Ambrosia dumosa
Synonym: Franseria dumosa
Common Names: White bursage, burrobush, burrowed, chicurilla, hierba de burro
Characteristics
Duration: Perennial
Growth Habit: Shrub
Arizona Native Status: Native
Habitat: Desert, washes, gentle slopes, bare soil (grows in fine, valley soils, while triangleleaf bursage grows on rocky or caliche soils)
Flower Color: Yellow-green
Flowering Season: Late winter to spring, depending on rainfall
Height: 8 to 24 inches
Description: This small shrub has many slender, stiff branches forming a rounded crown. Leaves are soft and gray-white, covered with tiny hairs and deeply divided. Bursage sheds its leaves during extended drought.
Special Characteristics
Bursage is abundant in upland Sonoran Desert and widely propagated for desert revegetation projects. It is considered a foodplant for black-tailed jackrabbits and kangaroo rats as well as other rodents. Bursage often shelters pincushion cacti..
Classification
Order: Asterales
Family: Asteraceae
SOURCES:
Marshall, K. Anna. 1994. Ambrosia dumosa. In: Fire Effects Information System, [Online]. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Fire Sciences Laboratory (Producer).
Available: fs.fed.us/database/feis/ [2013, October 8].
Phillips, S. J. and P. W. Comus. 2000. A Natural History of the Sonoran Desert. Tucson: Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum Press.
