Flora of North America species comparison

The green links below add additional plants to the comparison table. Blue links lead to other Web sites.
enable glossary links

Phaulothamnus spinescens

devilqueen, putia, Snake-eyes
Habit Plants erect, to 2.5 m, glabrous.
Leaves

sessile or petiolate;

blade to 35 × 12 mm, broadest distal to middle;

petiole ± 1 mm.
Flowers

yellow-green;

tepals 4, 2.5 × 2 mm.
Berries

gray-translucent to white, tinged with green, borne on peduncle 0.5–2 × 4–5 mm diam.
Seed

black, 1–2 mm, granular and rugose, visible through fruit wall.

Phaulothamnus spinescens
Phenology Flowering summer–fall; fruiting fall–winter.
Habitat Sandy to clayey soils in thickets, wooded areas
Elevation 0-200 m (0-700 ft)
Distribution
from FNA
TX; Mexico (Baja California, Nuevo León, Sonora, Tamaulipas)
[WildflowerSearch map]
[BONAP county map]
Discussion

Phaulothamnus spinescens is very infrequent, scattered in the lower south Texas plains and adjacent Mexico. Because the seeds are black and easily seen within the translucent fruits, the fruits give the appearance of a small eye, hence the common name snake-eyes.

(Discussion copyrighted by Flora of North America; reprinted with permission.)
Source FNA vol. 4, p. 13.
Parent taxa Achatocarpaceae > Phaulothamnus
Name authority A. Gray: Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 20: 294. (1885)
Web links 
Unless otherwise noted, all data comes from the online version of the Flora of North America, who have made most of their content available via a Creative Commons license (CC BY 4.0).



Type/paste one or more Latin names into the boxes above; matching taxa will show up below the box as you type. You can use the up/down arrow keys to move through the list.

(If the plant you're looking for doesn't show up in the auto-complete list, that means it either isn't described in Flora of North America yet, or it's listed under a synonym. And please note that Flora of North America is still missing several plant families, including Fabaceae, Apiaceae, Boraginaceae, and Polemoniaceae.)

Choose a data source: Flora of North America

The species comparison tool is brought to you by:
Northwest Wildflowers