Index / Search / Purshia glandulosa

§1 Plant

Purshia glandulosa Curran

vernacular desert bitterbrush — species · Rosaceae

USDA: PUGL2
GBIF: 5370300
Rank: species

desert bitterbrush (Purshia glandulosa) — Platephotograph · Don DavisCC BY-NC-ND source · iNaturalist ↗

§2Habit & range

Growth habit: Shrub
Duration: Perennial
Group: Dicot
Family: Rosaceae Juss.
Genus: Purshia

§2a

Native status, by region

L48 Lower 48 States Native

§2b

County-level range

· 12 counties across 3 states/territories

Legend Native · 12 Introduced · 0 Both · 0 Hover a county for detail.

§3Cultivation specs · USDA

Recorded by the USDA Plant Materials Program.

§3a

Tolerances

Drought: High
Shade: High
Moisture use: Low
Fire: None
Salinity: Medium
Anaerobic: None
CaCO₃: High
Hedging: Medium

§3b

Climate & soil

Cold tolerance: -13 °F minimum
Frost-free days: 200 min.
Precipitation: 5–15 in/yr
pH range: 6.8–8
Root depth: 12 in min.
Fertility need: Low
Soil texture: coarse, medium

§3c

Form & growth

Growth form: Multiple Stem
Growth rate: Slow
Lifespan: Moderate
Mature height: 5 ft
Height @ 20 y: 3 ft
Foliage texture: Medium
Foliage colour: Dark Green
Porosity (summer): Moderate
Porosity (winter): Moderate
Flower colour: Yellow
Fruit colour: Yellow
Fire resistant: No
N fixation: Low
Toxicity: None

§3d

Reproduction

Bloom period: Spring
Seed abundance: Medium
Seed begins: Summer
Seed ends: Fall
Spread rate: Slow
Stratify: Yes
Seeds / lb: 15,800
Propagation: seed, cuttings, bare root, container

§3e

Use & availability

Commercial availability: Routinely Available
Nursery stock: Yes
Browse palatability: High
Graze palatability: High
Palatable, human: No
Protein potential: Medium
Lumber: No
Christmas tree: No

§4Counties, by state

Recorded in 12 counties across 3 states/territories.

Arizona view state ↗ 1 N ▾

Mohave 04015

Nevada view state ↗ 9 N ▾

Utah view state ↗ 2 N ▾

§5Sources & provenance

USDA PLANTS

Symbol, taxonomy, distribution, cultivation specs, native status. Public domain.

plants.usda.gov/PUGL2 ↗

GBIF Backbone

Canonical taxonomic identity, synonym resolution, cross-refs. CC0.

gbif.org/species/5370300 ↗

Record version

Cached and built locally. Source version on this record:

usda-plants-mt-2026-05-26

fetched 2026-05-26T14:42:51Z