Purshia tridentata
Antelope Bitterbrush

Family: Rosaceae (Rose family)

Photo taken near Monitor, dry open slope

Flowers:

flowers solitary and terminal or lateral shoots, perigynous; calyx 6 to 8 mm, stipate-glandular to tomentose, 5 lobed; 5 petals cream to yellow, 5 to 9 mm, deciduous; usually around 25 stamens

Fruit:

black achene, 6 to 8 mm

Leaves:

alternate; leaflets deeply 3 lobed at the tip, 5 to 20 mm; greenish above, greyish tomentose beneath; leaf margins more or less revolute

Plant:

ridgedly branched shrub, 0.5 to 2 meters tall. Outer seed coats used to make a purple stain for wood by the Montana Indians, Klamath, and Great Basin Indian.

Habitat:

sagebrush to ponderosa pine forest

Distribution of species:

British Columbia to California in the east Cascades and in the Columbia River Gorge, east to Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico

Distribution of genus:

more or less 5 species: western North America