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Baccharis salicifolia; photograph author not stated, no rights reserved CC0author not stated, no rights reserved · observed growing wild · 2026-09-20

Baccharis salicifolia (Ruiz & Pav.) Pers.

Mule-fat; Seep-willow; Sticky baccharis; Sticky seep-willow

Asteraceae · Colorado, Arizona +33

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Baccharis salicifolia, photograph (c) Gregory Wada, some rights reserved (CC BY)Baccharis salicifolia, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedBaccharis salicifolia, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedBaccharis salicifolia, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedBaccharis salicifolia, photograph author not stated, no rights reservedBaccharis salicifolia, photograph (c) Gavin Skeen, some rights reserved (CC BY) 76 photographs ›
Habitat figures
Cold floor (1 night in 100)
1.4°C
Record low -3.6 °C in 44 years, at a typical spot in the range NASA POWER
Warmest month, mean daily high
29°C
Jul and Aug at the habitat CHELSA
Rain a year (median across the range)
436mm
6 months of 25 mm or more in the median year CHELSA
Open-sky light
20–52DLI
Lowest to highest month (DLI) CHELSA
The year in your months, northern hemisphere
  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec
Wet winters: the rain comes November to March, read as a winter growing season. rain rule, CHELSA
Northern hemisphere unless you set your site. The chart is in the habitat's months.

Summary

Baccharis salicifolia is a blooming shrub native to the sage scrub community and desert southwest of the United States and northern Mexico, as well as parts of South America. Its usual common name is mule fat; it is also called seepwillow or water-wally. This is a large bush with sticky foliage which bears plentiful small, fuzzy, pink, or red-tinged white flowers which are highly attractive to butterflies. It is a host plant for the larval stage of the fatal metalmark butterfly, and the adult stage also nectars on the flowers.

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Baccharis salicifolia", CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the genus · Baccharis

Baccharis is a genus of perennials and shrubs in the aster family (Asteraceae). They are commonly known as baccharises but sometimes referred to as "brooms", because many members have small thin leaves resembling the true brooms. They are not at all related to these however, but belong to an entirely different lineage of eudicots. More on Wikipedia ›

Quoted from Wikipedia, "Baccharis", CC BY-SA 4.0.

Cultivation

Seasons

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the median year's rain (263 mm of 341 mm) falls in November to March, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 13.1 °C against a yearly mean of 16.8 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: May to September.

Rain

341 mm in the median year at the habitat, 263 mm of it November to March. Wettest month February at 71 mm, driest month June at 3 mm; 2 months under 5 mm. Across the grid cells of the range the year's total runs 280 mm to 927 mm, the 10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year. The median of the cells' own yearly totals, 436 mm, is the year's rain at the top of the page; the 341 mm here is the median year's, the twelve monthly medians added, which the rain rule reads. Habitat calendar, northern hemisphere; median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA.

Light

Open sky over the habitat: 20 to 52 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 17, the highest 90th-percentile month 54).

Warmth and air
Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range is 1.4 °C, the absolute minimum -3.6 °C, 60 frost nights in 44 years, 1.4 a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 31.4 °C. Monthly means: the coldest month's mean nightly low 6.3 °C in January (across the grid cells of the range 2.3 °C to 14.5 °C), the warmest month's mean daily high 29.2 °C in August (median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). Cold floor: 1.4 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at a typical spot in the range (NASA POWER).

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 53 to 56% across the year (monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

How this section is made

Each card states this species' habitat figures with their sources, and what two fixed rules read from them; nothing here says what the plant does, wants or tolerates. The rules · the terms.

Seasons. Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the grid cells of the range: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve moves 4 °C or more and the habitat lies 10° or more from the equator. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain. CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the grid cells of the range. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light. CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Temperature. NASA POWER daily minima and maxima over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, lapse-corrected -352 m to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the grid cells of the range. The cold floor is the 1st-percentile night named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity. CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the grid cells of the range.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat months, northern hemisphere

Habitat climate of Baccharis salicifolia through the yearWarmest months July and August, mean daily high 29 °C; coldest month January, mean nightly low 6.3 °C; 341 mm of rain in the median year (the twelve monthly medians added). Medians across the range, from CHELSA; the extremes at the edge from NASA POWER. Habitat months, northern hemisphere.-10°0°10°20°30°40°frost31.4° 99th-percentile day, NASA POWER-3.6° lowest night in 44 years, NASA POWER°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075100125150mm rainDLI 20–52RH 53–56%JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain medians and 10th–90th percentile across 890 habitat cells, CHELSA cold quarter: the three months around the coldest month's mean nightly low extremes over 44 years at a typical spot in the range, from NASA POWER, marked at the edge, in no month DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C17 / 14–2518 / 15–2619 / 17–2622 / 19–2824 / 19–3126 / 18–3429 / 18–3529 / 19–3428 / 20–3224 / 21–2820 / 17–2517 / 13–25
Night °C6 / 2–157 / 3–158 / 5–1410 / 7–1412 / 9–1715 / 10–2017 / 10–2218 / 10–2217 / 10–2013 / 10–169 / 6–157 / 2–14
Rain mm60 / 13–12271 / 10–12253 / 7–9625 / 8–509 / 4–603 / 2–1014 / 1–1455 / 1–1319 / 5–12323 / 14–6631 / 11–6748 / 8–100
DLI22 / 19–3727 / 24–3935 / 32–4344 / 38–4849 / 36–5252 / 33–5450 / 33–5246 / 34–4839 / 32–4131 / 29–3624 / 21–3720 / 17–38
RH %54 / 49–6055 / 48–6156 / 44–6255 / 41–6155 / 40–6356 / 39–6455 / 44–6555 / 45–6555 / 45–6554 / 45–6254 / 46–6053 / 49–59
How this section is made
Each figure is the median across the 890 grid cells on land that hold in-range records (1494 records in those cells; 4 more cells hold records but no land by the elevation layer, so those records sit at sea and the cells are left out), with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. A dash is a month one or more of those cells has no figure for in the grid (a variable CHELSA does not carry there), so no median is taken rather than one over fewer cells. Extremes and elevation were read at a typical spot in the range, cell 1410:1622 (19.475, -98.875). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -3.6 °C, 1st-percentile night 1.4 °C, 99th-percentile day 31.4 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Across the range: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 890 distinct grid cells holding 1494 of the 1498 in-range records (4 further cells with records at sea, by the elevation layer, left out); extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1410:1622 (its coldest month's mean nightly low nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 19.50_-98.750, lapse-corrected -352 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 2281 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across the cells of the in-range records placed well enough to read one, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeColorado, Arizona, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Brazil West-Central, Brazil Northeast, Brazil Southeast, Brazil North, Argentina Northeast, Argentina South, Argentina Northwest, Chile Central, Chile North, Chile South, Paraguay, Uruguay · introduced: Spain, Western Australia · regions are the level-3 units of the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions, as Kew's World Checklist records ranges, some under historical names such as Yugoslavia or Czechoslovakia (how).
Map marker33.656, -117.557 · in the densest population, 912 records (51% of those in range)
Kew's description“subtropical” · quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Evidence usedThe map marker rests on all 1778 georeferenced records inside the native range; the climate across the range on the 1494 of them in the land cells it reads, of 1498 placed to within 10 km; the map shows only the 521 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 24 km away. 280 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km, or with no stated accuracy (admitted only as a person's observation to three decimals), and stay on the map but off the climate.
How this section is made
The map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population of the 1778 in-range records; it decides nothing. Records outside the native range, living specimens and records marked introduced are not used; which records count.

Photographs

Baccharis salicifolia, photograph 1did not loadBaccharis salicifolia, photograph 2did not loadBaccharis salicifolia, photograph 3did not loadBaccharis salicifolia, photograph 4did not loadBaccharis salicifolia, photograph 5did not loadBaccharis salicifolia, photograph 6did not load

Photographs: (c) Gregory Wada, some rights reserved (CC BY); author not stated, no rights reserved · CC0 (4); (c) Gavin Skeen, some rights reserved (CC BY).

Similar habitat climate The 6 nearest by mean daily high, mean nightly low and rain, month by month. How.

Hemionitis newberryi Pteridaceae Ceanothus cyaneus Ceanothus cyaneus Lakeside ceanothus Photo: CC BY, Matt BergerDiplacus × australis Diplacus × australis Phrymaceae Photo: CC0, Jasper Shide Hesperocyparis forbesii Cupressaceae Clematis pauciflora Clematis pauciflora Southern California clematis Photo: CC BY-SA, Nancy OverholtzAllium haematochiton Allium haematochiton Redskin onion Photo: CC0, author not stated

Other Baccharis 41 in the reference

Baccharis aliena Baccharis aliena Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Magdalena Carabio FotiBaccharis angustifolia Baccharis angustifolia Narrow-leaf baccharis Photo: CC BY, Neal KelsoBaccharis articulata Baccharis articulata Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Pablo H CapovillaBaccharis bogotensis Baccharis bogotensis Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Nicolás Baresch UribeBaccharis boliviensis Baccharis boliviensis Asteraceae Photo: CC0, Alfredo F. Fuentes ClarosBaccharis caespitosa Baccharis caespitosa Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Yuri SofronovBaccharis conferta Baccharis conferta Chinese brush Photo: CC BY, Forest Botial-JarvisBaccharis crispa Baccharis crispa Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, LauuBaccharis dioica Baccharis dioica Broombush false willow Photo: CC BY-SA, Stan ShebsBaccharis dracunculifolia Baccharis dracunculifolia Asteraceae Photo: CC BY, Victoria ProsdocimoBaccharis genistelloides Baccharis genistelloides Asteraceae Photo: CC BY-SA, Carlo BresciaBaccharis glomeruliflora Baccharis glomeruliflora Silverling Groundsel Bush Photo: CC BY, xanderferret all 42 ›

Names & registers

Also known as Baccharis caerulescens; Baccharis corymbosa; Baccharis linifolia; Baccharis marginalis var. caerulescens; Baccharis marginalis var. longipes and 8 more. (GBIF Backbone)

GBIFPOWOIPNIWikidataWikipediaiNaturalist

The record

Family
Asteraceae
Described by
(Ruiz & Pav.) Pers.
Native to
Colorado, Arizona, California +32
Wild records
1778 in range · 521 open

Every figure here is derived from public data by a stated rule and names its source; nothing about this species is written for its page by a person or by AI, apart from the marked, credited quotations. How →

Where this page came from built 2026-10-21
GBIF species record gbif.species answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF synonyms gbif.synonyms answeredasked 2026-10-21
GBIF common names gbif.vernacular answeredasked 2026-10-21names fetched 2026-10-21
WCVP native range wcvp.distribution answeredas of 2026-06-04
GBIF occurrence records gbif.occurrences answeredas of 2026-10-21GBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.hbdw64, of 2026-10-21; 46 records within 1 km of a botanic garden, herbarium or zoo left out (31 at a botanic garden or arboretum, 1 at a herbarium, 14 at a zoo; Wikidata's list)
Habitat climate climate answeredasked 2026-10-21
Daily extremes (NASA POWER) climate.extremes answeredasked 2026-10-21NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 19.50_-98.750, lapse-corrected -352 m at 6.5 °C/km
Wikidata wikidata answeredasked 2026-10-21
Wikipedia wikipedia answeredasked 2026-10-21
iNaturalist photographs, wild inat.photos.wild answeredasked 2026-10-22from iNaturalist's open data of 2026-09-27: research-grade observations with an open-licence photograph, the 24 whose photographs iNaturalist received last (the open data holds no votes); filled 2026-10-22
iNaturalist photographs, cultivated inat.photos.cultivated not asked
GBIF media gbif.media answeredasked 2026-10-21
OpenAlex papers openalex not askednot yet asked for this reference; a later fill takes the papers from OpenAlex's snapshot

Every source is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, refused, failed, not been asked, or answered twice where one answer is taken (“not taken: two items answered”), and, for a source asked when this page was built, when: the figures are as the source held them that day; a source read from a file (Kew's World Checklist, a GBIF download) says "as of" the file's day instead; a row carried from an earlier build of the page names that build instead. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 89 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.

Cultifolio

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