Baccharis salicifolia

Baccharis salicifolia is an evergreen shrub of the Asteraceae family, typically 1 to 4 metres tall, with multiple slender, erect, sticky-resinous stems branching from the base to form a dense, willow-like clump. The alternate leaves are linear-lanceolate to narrowly elliptic, 5 to 15 centimetres long and 5 to 20 millimetres wide, with finely serrate margins, a tapering base and a pointed apex, bright green and slightly glutinous from resin glands. The species is dioecious, with separate male and female plants; numerous small, discoid flower heads about 5 millimetres across are crowded in flat-topped, terminal panicle-like clusters, the male heads with creamy-yellow disc florets and the female heads with whitish thread-like florets that develop into masses of fluffy, wind-borne, plumose achenes about 1 millimetre long. Flowering occurs over a long season, mostly spring to autumn. Native to the southwestern United States, Mexico and through Central and South America, the shrub forms thickets along streamsides, washes and moist disturbed ground in arid and semi-arid regions.