PLANT: Shrubs to 5.5 m tall. STEMS: gray to red. LEAVES: thick, evergreen; petioles 0.5-1.7 cm long; blades elliptic to obovate, 2.8-8.5 cm long, 1.4-3.8 (-4.5) cm wide, green, glabrous on the upper surface and glabrous to white-tomentose on the lower surface. FLOWERS: 4-27 (-34) per inflorescence; sepals 2 mm long; petals brownish; stigma 2-lobed. FRUITS 0.6-1.2 cm wide; seeds 2. NOTES: 6 subspp. (1 in AZ); OR, CA & NV, west to NM. REFERENCES: Kyle Christie, Michael Currie, Laura Smith Davis, Mar-Elise Hill, Suzanne Neal, and Tina Ayers, 2006 Vascular Plants of Arizona: Rhamnaceae. CANOTIA 2(1): 23-46.
