Psathyrotes is a genus of annual

Annual plant

An annual plant is a plant that usually germinates, flowers, and dies in a year or season. True annuals will only live longer than a year if they are prevented from setting seed...

 and perennial

Perennial plant

A perennial plant or simply perennial is a plant that lives for more than two years. The term is often used to differentiate a plant from shorter lived annuals and biennials. The term is sometimes misused by commercial gardeners or horticulturalists to describe only herbaceous perennials...

 forb

Forb

A forb is a herbaceous flowering plant that is not a graminoid . The term is used in biology and in vegetation ecology, especially in relation to grasslands and understory.-Etymology:...

s and low subshrub

Subshrub

A subshrub or dwarf shrub is a short woody plant. Prostrate shrub is a similar term.It is distinguished from a shrub by its ground-hugging stems and lower height, with overwintering perennial woody growth typically less than 10–20 cm tall, or by being only weakly woody and/or persisting...

s native to dry areas of southwestern North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

. Common names include turtleback, brittlestem, and fanleaf.

The plants are low, densely-branching, hairy, and scaly, with a turpentine

Turpentine

Turpentine is a fluid obtained by the distillation of resin obtained from trees, mainly pine trees. It is composed of terpenes, mainly the monoterpenes alpha-pinene and beta-pinene...

-like odor. Leaves are alternate and hairy. The Latin name of the genus (from the Greek psathurotes) refers to the brittleness of the stems.

Species

• Psathyrotes annua
  Psathyrotes annua
  Psathyrotes annua is a species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common name annual psathyrotes. It is native to the southwestern United States and as far north as Idaho. It grows in desert and scrub habitat, often in areas with alkali soils among plants such as shadscale. It is a...
  
  (Nutt.) Gray (annual psathyrotes, mealy rosettes, turtleback)
  • Synonyms: Bulbostylis annua Nutt.
  • Annual or perennial forb
• Psathyrotes pilifera Gray (hairy-beast turtleback, hairybeast brittlestem)
  • Annual forb
• Psathyrotes ramosissima
  Psathyrotes ramosissima
  Psathyrotes ramosissima is a species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common name turtleback, or velvet turtleback. It is native to the southwestern United States where it grows in desert scrub habitat. It is a low, neatly mounded plant producing spreading stems which are...
  
  (Torr.) Gray (velvet rosette, velvet turtleback, turtleback)
  • Synonyms: Tetradymia ramosissima Torr.
  • Annual or perennial forb or subshrub
• Psathyrotes scaposa Gray (naked turtleback)
  • Synonyms: Psathyrotopsis scaposa (Gray) H.E. Robins.
  • Annual or perennial forb