Desert-tobacco, sometimes perennial in southwestern Arizona, is a dark-green herb common and widespread throughout the desert areas of the Southwest. It is not nearly as noticeable as its larger relative although it, too, blossoms the year around. Flowers are a pale yellow, almost greenish-white. It provides dense ground cover in rocky canyons and along desert washes.
Leaves, which are somewhat bad smelling, were smoked (and still are during ceremonials) by the Yuma and Havasupai Indians who are reported to have cleared land, burned the brush, and scattered the seeds of Desert-tobacco in an effort to promote the growth of strong plants with many large leaves.
[Illustration: Calycoseris wrighti Calycoseris parryi]
Common Names: TACKSTEM Arizona desert: (_Calycoseris wrighti_). White. March-May. California desert: (_Calycoseris parryi_). Yellow. March-April. Sunflower family. Size: 4 inches to a foot tall.
One of the handsomest of desert spring annuals, _Calycoseris_ is common on plains, mesas, and rocky slopes at elevations between 1,200 and 4,000 feet from western Texas to southern Utah, southern California, and south into Mexico.
The name Tackstem comes from the presence of numerous tack-shaped glands which protrude from the stems.
Taking advantage of the cool, moist weather of winter, the Tackstems produce their beautiful rose, white, or yellow blossoms in early spring, and mature their seeds before the advent of hot, dry weather.
[Illustration: Brickellia coulteri Brickellia californica]
Common Names: BRICKELLBUSH, DESERT BRICKELLIA, (_PACHABA_) Arizona desert: (_Brickellia coulteri_). Yellow-white. September. California desert: (_Brickellia desertorum_). Pale yellow. Midsummer. Texas-New Mexico deserts: (_Brickellia californica_). Yellow-white. July-October. Sunflower family. Size: Small, much-branched perennial shrub, up to 3 feet in height.
Intricately branched and brittle-stemmed, this shrub with blossom heads holding from 8 to 18 yellowish flowers is common throughout the Southwest from western Texas and Colorado to Nevada, Sonora and Lower California.
It grows among rocks and in rocky locations throughout much of the desert country from 3,000 up to 7,000 feet.
Common Names: WILD-ZINNIA Arizona and Texas deserts: (_Zinnia pumila_). Pale yellow. April-October. Sunflower family. Size: Low, dense-growing perennials in rounded clumps, 4 to 8 inches high.