| Purshia mexicana | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| (unranked): | Angiosperms |
| (unranked): | Eudicots |
| (unranked): | Rosids |
| Order: | Rosales |
| Family: | Rosaceae |
| Subfamily: | Dryadoideae |
| Genus: | Purshia |
| Species: | P. mexicana |
| Binomial name | |
| Purshia mexicana (D.Don), Henrickson |
|
| Synonyms | |
|
Cowania mexicana |
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Purshia mexicana is a species of perennial flowering small tree in the rose family known by the common name Mexican cliffrose. It is native to western-northern Mexico, the region of the Sierra Madre Occidental cordillera.
A different phase which was published as var. stansburyana (but should have been stansburiana) and which is now treated as Purshia stansburyana occurs in the southwestern United States, centered on the Colorado Plateau regions of Utah–Colorado, and Arizona–New Mexico; also much of the Great Basin mountains to the west.[1]
In its mostly mountainous, or higher elevation habitat, it grows in woodlands, desert, and plateau habitat.
Stenophyllanin A, a tannin, can be found in P. mexicana.[2]
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The range of Mexican Cliffrose is from the western Mexican Plateau in the south, and the southern Sierra Madre Occidental cordillera north to a small region of northwest Sonora;[3] it has a continuous range in the cordillera from Chihuahua south through Durango and Zacatecas, all mostly north of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, though a few scattered locales do occur in the belt.[4]
In the United States, the range is centered on the Colorado Plateau mostly of central and southern Utah, central and northern Arizona, the entire desert and rock-formation Canyon Lands region; the range continues east into southwest Colorado and neighboring western New Mexico.[5]
The range continues westwards into the Great Basin desert regions, and southwest into the Mojave Desert including eastern California; scattered locales occur in central New Mexico, and possibly central Baja California.[6]