Spreading shrubs 5–20 feet tall have reddish-brown bark that shreds with age, long, slender, arching stems, and deeply toothed, oval leaves. Note the showy, dangling sprays of small, creamy-white flowers; highly attractive to butterflies and other pollinators.

FLOWERS: April–August. Dense, elongated to pyramidal, branching clusters 4–7 inches long (10–17 cm) are packed with small 1/8–1/4 inch wide (3–6 mm) flowers with 5 oval, white petals; stamens extend beyond petals.

LEAVES: Alternate, deciduous, without stalks (sessile) or on stalks (petioles) to 1 inch long (2.5 cm) depending on variety; blades oval to oblong or triangular, 1 1/4–3 1/8 inches long (3–8 cm) by 3/4–2 3/4 inches wide (2–7 cm); edges lined with coarse teeth; surfaces hairy or not, strongly veined; tip rounded, often with an abrupt tiny tooth.

HABITAT: Dry soils, rocky slopes, open forest; ponderosa-Douglas-fir, spruce-fir forests.

ELEVATION: 6,400–10,500 feet.

RANGE: AZ, CA, CO, ID, MT, NM, NV, OR, TX, UT, WA, WY; Canada, Mexico.

SIMILAR SPECIES: Two varieties exist in NM with slightly different leaf characteristics: var. dumosus has indistinct petioles; var. discolor has distinct petioles. Some sources consider the varieties separate species.

NM COUNTIES: Widespread, common in NM mountains in mid- to high elevation habitats: Bernalillo, Catron, Cibola, Colfax, Dona Ana, Grant, Harding, Hidalgo, Lincoln, Los Alamos, Luna, McKinley, Mora, Otero, Rio Arriba, San Juan, San Miguel, Sandoval, Santa Fe, Sierra, Socorro, Taos, Torrance.