Orchard snakeweed

Gutierrezia sarothrae (Pursh) Britton & Rusby var. pomariensis S. L. Welsh, Great Basin Naturalist 30: 19. 1970

Subshrubs, 20–50 cm. Stems sparsely scabrous or glandular-scabrous to glabrate. Leaves: basal absent at flowering; cauline blades 1-nerved, linear, 0.5–2.5 mm wide, slightly reduced distally. Heads borne singly or in pairs on bracteate peduncles, or some almost sessile, in loose arrays. Involucres cylindro-turbinate to turbinate-campanulate, 3–5 mm diam. Phyllary apices (green, broadly rounded), thickened, (prominently gland-dotted). Ray florets (4–)5–7(–8); corollas yellow, 2–5 mm. Disc florets 5–15. Cypselae 1–2 mm, faces without oil cavities, loosely strigose; pappi of 1–2 series of oblong-lanceolate scales 1–2 mm. 2n = 32.

Flowering Jul–Sep. Dry, open, rocky sites, mixed desert shrub communities; 1400–2200 m; Utah.

Gutierrezia pomariensis is similar to G. sarothrae and sympatric with it; the two are ecologically distinct, with G. pomariensis occupying drier habitats. "Intermediates in a populational sense are few and apparently confined to the ecotone in places where the two taxa grow nearby" (A. Cronquist 1994).