Species
+

Larrea tridentata (DC.) Coult.

Zygophyllaceae

Climate known 24 photographs
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Larrea tridentata, also called creosote bush, greasewood, and chaparral is a medicinal herb. In Sonora, it is more commonly called hediondilla; Spanish hediondo = "smelly". It is a flowering plant in the family Zygophyllaceae. The specific name tridentata refers to its three-toothed leaves.

Text from Wikipedia, “Larrea tridentata”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Larrea

Larrea is a genus of flowering plants in the caltrop family, Zygophyllaceae. It contains five species of evergreen shrubs that are native to the Americas. The generic name honours Bishop Juan Antonio Hernández Pérez de Larrea, a patron of science. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Larrea”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Zygophyllaceae
Described by
(DC.) Coult.
Native to
Arizona, California, Nevada +7
Wild records
1900 in range· 1202 open

At a glance

Warmest month
36°C
Jul, mean day; nights 23 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
208mm/yr
1 wet month · peak Aug 32 mm (CHELSA)
Light
21–54DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Rain rule: a winter growing season, December to March and July to September in the northern hemisphere (December to March and July to September at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 208 mm a year, wettest August at 32 mm, driest June at 3 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 54 mol/m²/day. Cold floor -1.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Covillea glutinosa (Engelm.) Rydb.; Covillea tridentata (DC.) Vail; Guaiacum mexicanum Baill.; Larrea divaricata subsp. tridentata (DC.) Felger; Larrea divaricata var. arenaria (L.D.Benson) Felger and 13 more.

Cultivation

Its year Rain rule: a winter growing season, December to March and July to September in the northern hemisphere (December to March and July to September at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a winter growing season: 70% of the year's rain (159 mm of 208 mm) falls in December to March and July to September, cooler than the year (wet-season mean 18.6 °C against a yearly mean of 19.5 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: January to March and June to September.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: 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 gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 208 mm a year, wettest August at 32 mm, driest June at 3 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

208 mm a year at the habitat, 159 mm of it December to March and July to September. Wettest month August at 32 mm, driest June at 3 mm; 1 month under 5 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 115 mm to 376 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

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

Light Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 54 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 21 to 54 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 18, the highest 90th-percentile month 55).

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.

Warmth and air Cold floor -1.7 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is -1.7 °C, the absolute minimum -7.7 °C, about 10 frost nights a year (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 42.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 3.8 °C in January (across the envelope cells 0.5 °C to 8.1 °C), warmest day 36.4 °C in July (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: -1.7 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER).

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 37 to 49% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 15 °C in Dec to 36 °C in Jul; mean night from 4 °C in Jan to 23 °C in Jul. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 208 mm of rain a year, most in Aug. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 1030 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was -7.7 °C and the 99th-percentile day 42.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.-10°10°20°30°40°50°frost42.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)-7.7° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0255075mm rainDLI 21–54RH 37–49 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 1030 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C16 / 12–2018 / 14–2222 / 18–2626 / 23–3031 / 28–3535 / 31–3936 / 32–4135 / 31–4032 / 28–3727 / 23–3120 / 17–2415 / 12–19
Night °C4 / 1–85 / 2–108 / 5–1211 / 8–1516 / 13–1920 / 16–2423 / 19–2823 / 19–2720 / 16–2414 / 11–188 / 5–124 / 1–8
Rain mm22 / 12–3723 / 10–3918 / 7–329 / 4–185 / 2–253 / 1–3724 / 5–6932 / 9–6919 / 7–4818 / 6–3114 / 8–2221 / 12–34
DLI23 / 20–2529 / 26–3138 / 36–4047 / 46–4852 / 50–5354 / 49–5549 / 45–5244 / 42–4740 / 38–4132 / 30–3425 / 22–2721 / 18–23
RH %49 / 45–5147 / 44–5144 / 41–4940 / 37–4738 / 35–4737 / 33–4743 / 37–4945 / 39–5244 / 38–5143 / 40–4945 / 42–4849 / 45–51

Each figure is the median across the 1030 grid cells holding the 1849 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1155:1378 (32.225, -111.075). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum -7.7 °C, 1st-percentile night -1.7 °C, 99th-percentile day 42.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 1030 distinct grid cells holding the 1849 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1155:1378 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 32.00_-111.250, lapse-corrected -66 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 896 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 every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeArizona, California, Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, Texas, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Northwest, Mexico Southwest
Kew's description“shrub” · “desert or dry shrubland”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker33.667, -116.402 · in the densest population, 958 records (50% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1900 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 1202 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 86 km away. 1 record outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 51 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 2° block of the 1900 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Larrea tridentataLarrea tridentataLarrea tridentataLarrea tridentataLarrea tridentataLarrea tridentataLarrea tridentataLarrea tridentata

Photographs: Zac Peterson, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (6); CK2AZ, CC BY, iNaturalist via GBIF (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Larrea tridentata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

On the Spatial Pattern of Soil Nutrients in Desert Ecosystems
William H. Schlesinger, Jane A. Raikes, Anne E. Hartley, Anne Fernald Cross (1996) · Ecology
Vulnerability to xylem cavitation and the distribution of Sonoran Desert vegetation
William T. Pockman, John S. Sperry (2000) · American Journal of Botany
Complex Responses Within A Desert Bee Guild (Hymenoptera: Apiformes) To Urban Habitat Fragmentation
James H. Cane, Robert L. Minckley, Linda J. Kervin, T’ai H. Roulston (2006) · Ecological Applications
Gut microbes of mammalian herbivores facilitate intake of plant toxins
Kevin D. Kohl, Robert B. Weiss, James E. Cox, Colin Dale (2014) · Ecology Letters
Root communication among desert shrubs.
Bruce E. Mahall, Ragan M. Callaway (1991) · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Markovian Dynamics of Simple and Complex Desert Plant Communities
Joseph R. McAuliffe (1988) · The American Naturalist
Sampling Bees (Hymenoptera: Apiformes) for Pollinator Community Studies: Pitfalls of Pan-trapping
James H. Cane, Robert L. Minckley, Linda J. Kervin (2000) · Digital Commons - USU (Utah State University)

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild not askedcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: not asked: 21 wild photographs already from the GBIF download
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: filled 2026-09-20
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 49 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.