Semi-desert, foothills. Canyons, rocky areas. Summer.
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, May 23, 2011 and November 5, 2013.

Brickellia oblongifolia variety linifolia typically grows in a neat shrub-like cluster six to twenty inches tall and wide. The plant flowers in the late spring or early summer, and loves open, dry, rocky areas.  It is found in all Four Corners states at lower elevations. 

Leafy stems, as the photograph at left and above indicate, often arch outward and then upward ("ascending" growth form). 

Thomas Nuttall, famed 19th century botanical collector and Botany Instructor at Harvard, named this plant in 1841 from specimens he collected in 1834 on gravel bars on and near the Columbia River.  Dr. John Brickell was an early American physician and naturalist. (More biographical information about Brickell.)

Brickellia oblongifolia variety linifolia (Narrowleaf Brickellbush, Mojave Brickellbush)
Asteraceae (Sunflower Family)

Semi-desert, foothills. Canyons, rocky areas. Summer.
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, May 23, 2011 and July 1, 2013.

As the photographs on this page show, the flowers of Brickellia oblongifolia variety linifolia are rayless and solitary at the end of each stem. The tubular disk corollas at first appear to be creamy white, but a closer look shows that to be the color of the exserted styles.

The tubular disk corollas themselves can be a variety of colors and are variously described in floras as, "pale yellow-green or cream, often purple-tinged" (Flora of North America; "pink, purple, (sometimes vivid), or brownish" (A Utah Flora); "ochroleucous or nearly white" (Intermountain Flora). I find that the color of corollas in the Four Corners area is consistently as shown on this page: red/brown.

Flowers are all perfect.

Last year's stems, leaves, and dried flower parts often persist and make the plant relatively easy to locate and identify.

The second photograph at left shows the plant just after flowers have faded and pappus hairs are silvery and ready to carry the seeds on the first heavy winds.

Brickellia oblongifolia variety linifolia (Narrowleaf Brickellbush, Mojave Brickellbush)
Asteraceae (Sunflower Family)

Semi-desert, foothills. Canyons, rocky areas. Summer.
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, May 23, 2011.

Phyllaries are in 4-6 series. As shown at left, they are in 4 series with the outer ones very short. In the photograph immediately above, the phyllaries are in 6 series.

Notice that the edges of the phyllaries are straw-colored ("scarious-margined") and phyllary tips can be green, light red, or straw-colored.

As several photographs on this page show, the phyllaries commonly persist into the next season.

The fourth from the top photograph on this page shows the persistent, flower-like dried phyllaries and also gives a view of the pitted receptacle. Keys to Asteraceae species commonly ask if the receptacle is pitted, flat, concave, chaffy, etc.

Brickellia oblongifolia variety linifolia (Narrowleaf Brickellbush, Mojave Brickellbush)
Asteraceae (Sunflower Family)

Semi-desert, foothills. Canyons, rocky areas. Summer.
Canyons of the Ancients National Monument, May 23, 2011.

Leaves are most often clothed in short, glandular hairs that give a very noticeable pleasant fragrance to the plant.

Range map © John Kartesz,
Floristic Synthesis of North America

State Color Key

Species present in state and native
Species present in state and exotic
Species not present in state

County Color Key

Species present and not rare
Species present and rare
Species extirpated (historic)
Species extinct
Species noxious
Species exotic and present
Native species, but adventive in state
Eradicated
Questionable presence

Range map for Brickellia oblongifolia variety linifolia