Creosote Bush

Larrea tridentata, the creosote bush, is an evergreen shrub of the family Zygophyllaceae. It is also called greasewood as a plant, chaparral as a medicinal herb, and hediondilla in Sonora, from the Spanish hediondo, meaning smelly. It is prominent in the Mojave, Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts of western North America. The light grey stems bear resinous, dark green leaves of two joined leaflets, and the flowers have five yellow petals. The whole plant has a characteristic creosote odour, which in its home regions is associated with the smell of rain. Native Americans in the Southwest held that it treated many maladies, including snakebite and tuberculosis, and the Tohono O'odham boiled the resin that exudes from the plant into a glue for mending broken pottery. It is still widely used as a herbal medicine in Mexico.