Data provided by the participants of the Consortium of California Herbaria

View additional distribution information on the Jepson eflora

Ambrosia eriocentra is a North American species of ragweed known by the common names woolly bursage and woollyfruit burr ragweed. It is native to the southwestern United States (California, Arizona, Nevada, Utah), where it grows in the deserts and surrounding ridges up to about 1700 meters in elevation. Ambrosia eriocentra is a rounded shrub reaching over 1. 5 meters in height. The stems are brownish gray in color, with young twigs coated in light woolly fibers and older branches bare. Leaves are lance-shaped and up to 9 centimeters long, not counting the winged petioles. The leaves have rolled lobed or toothed edges. As in other ragweeds, the inflorescence has a few staminate (male) flower heads next to several single-flowered pistillate heads. The fruit is a green burr with long, silky white hairs and several hair-tufted sharp spines. The burr is around a centimeter long.

Plant type

Shrub

Size

5 ft Tall

Plant communities

Creosote Bush Scrub, Joshua Tree Woodland, Pinyon-Juniper Woodland

Caterpillars
Butterflies

Butterflies and moths supported

1 confirmed and 10 likely

Confirmed Likely

Ambrosia Plume Moth

Adaina ambrosiae

Garden Webworm Moth

Achyra rantalis

Animomyia smithii

Bordered Patch

Chlosyne lacinia