DISTRIBUTION AND OCCURRENCE
SPECIES: Encelia farinosa | Brittle Bush 



GENERAL DISTRIBUTION : 
Brittle bush grows in the interior valleys of coastal southern
California (San Bernardino Valley, Lake Elsinore, western San Diego
County, and west Riverside County), Baja California, southern Nevada in
Clark County, southwestern Utah, southern and western Arizona, and
northwestern Mexico [1,35,46,52].  It is adventitious in Hawaii [55].


ECOSYSTEMS : 
   FRES28  Western hardwoods
   FRES29  Sagebrush
   FRES30  Desert shrub
   FRES33  Southwestern shrubsteppe
   FRES34  Chaparral - mountain shrub
   FRES35  Pinyon - juniper
   FRES40  Desert grasslands


STATES : 
     AZ  CA  HI  NV  UT  MEXICO


ADMINISTRATIVE UNITS : 
     DEVA  GRCA  JOTR  LAME  ORPI  SAGU


BLM PHYSIOGRAPHIC REGIONS : 
    3  Southern Pacific Border
    7  Lower Basin and Range
   12  Colorado Plateau


KUCHLER PLANT ASSOCIATIONS : 
   K023  Juniper - pinyon woodland
   K024  Juniper steppe woodland
   K030  California oakwoods
   K033  Chaparral
   K034  Montane chaparral
   K035  Coastal sagebrush
   K040  Saltbush - greasewood
   K041  Creosotebush
   K042  Creosotebush - bursage
   K043  Paloverde - cactus shrub
   K044  Creosotebush - tarbush
   K053  Grama - galleta steppe
   K054  Grama - tobosa prairie
   K055  Sagebrush steppe
   K056  Wheatgrass - needlegrass shrubsteppe
   K057  Galleta - three-awn shrubsteppe
   K058  Grama - tobosa shrubsteppe
   K061  Mesquite - acacia savanna
   K064  Grama - needlegrass - wheatgrass
   K065  Grama - buffalograss
   K087  Mesquite - oak savanna


SAF COVER TYPES : 
    68  Mesquite
    72  Southern scrub oak
   239  Pinyon - juniper
   241  Western live oak
   242  Mesquite
   255  California coast live oak


SRM (RANGELAND) COVER TYPES : 
NO-ENTRY


HABITAT TYPES AND PLANT COMMUNITIES : 
Brittle bush occurs in pine-oak (Pinus-Quercus) and open oak woodlands,
semidesert and desert grasslands, desert scrub, and coastal sage scrub.
Throughout most of its range, brittle bush is the dominant shrub.  It
forms extensive monospecific stands in many areas.  On south-facing
slopes and bajadas of the lower Colorado Valley in the Sonoran Desert,
vegetation is dominated by brittle bush.  On other sites in this area,
brittle bush often codominants with creosotebush (Larrea tridentata) and
teddy-bear cholla (Opuntia bigelovii) [51].  Brittle bush is also
codominant in the brittle bush-wishbonebush (Mirabilis laevis)
association, which usually occurs in coastal sage scrub on south-facing
moderately, steep slopes.  The publication describing this association is
"The community composition of California coastal sage scrub" [18].

Brittle bush is often associated with palo verde (Cercidium spp.),
saguaro (Carnegiea gigantea), fairy duster (Calliandra eriophylla),
Janusia graciles, agave (Agave spp.), creosotebush, Anderson wolfberry
(Lycium andersonii), white bursage (Ambrosia dumosa), canyon ragweed
(Ambrosia ambrosioides), Opuntia spp., whitethorn acacia (Acacia
constricta), catclaw acacia (A. greggi), fourwing saltbush (Atriplex
canescens), desert hackberry (Celtis pallida), honey mesquite (Prosopis
glandulosa var. glandulosa), and several species of perennial bunchgrass
[4,14,15,28,29].

Related categories for Species: Encelia farinosa | Brittle Bush