Wand Holdback

Larrea microphylla (Torrey) Britton
Hoffmanseggia microphylla Torrey, Bot. Mex. Boinid. Surv. 58. 1859. Caesalpinia virgata Fisher, Bot. Gaz. 18: 123. 1893.
A virgate shrub, up to 12 dm. high, the branches and racemes velvety-puberulent. Stipules ovate, acuminate, 3-4 mm. long; pinnae 3, the terminal one much longer than the lateral ones; lateral pinnae with 4—9 pairs of leaflets; terminal pinna with 7-13 pairs of leaflets; leaflets 2-3 mm. long, pubescent; racemes 1-6 dm. long, many-flowered; bracts lanceolate, pubescent, glandular on the margin, caducous; pedicels 3-7 mm. long; calyx pubescent, the lobes subimbricate, spreading or reflexed in age; petals not much longer than the sepals; vexillum eglandular; stamens pubescent; legume narrowly lunate, about 2 cm. long and 7 mm. wide, acute at both ends, pubescent and glandular.
Type locality: Colorado Desert, California.
Distribution: Southern Arizona and California to Sonora and Lower California.

Perennial, Shrubs, Stems woody below, or from woody crown or caudex, Plants with rhizomes or suckers, Taproot present, Stems erect or ascending, Stems less than 1 m tall, Stems 1-2 m tall, Stems solid, Stems or young twigs glabrous or sparsely glabrate, Stems or young twigs sparsely to densely hairy, Leaves alternate, Leaves petiolate, Stipules inconspicuous, absent, or caducous, Stipules free, Leaves compound, Leaves bipinnate, Leaf or leaflet margins entire, Leaflets opposite, Leaflets 10-many, Leaves hairy on one or both surfaces, Inflorescences racemes, Inflorescence terminal, Inflorescence leaf-opposed, Bracts very small, absent or caducous, Flowers actinomorphic or somewhat irregular, Calyx 5-lobed, Calyx gland-dotted or with glandular spot, Calyx hairy, Petals separate, Petals orange or yellow, Stamens 9-10, Stamens completely free, separate, Filaments hairy, villous, Style terete, Fruit a legume, Fruit stipitate, Fruit unilocular, Fruit freely dehiscent, Fruit elongate, straight, Fruit oblong or ellipsoidal, Fruit coriaceous or becoming woody, Fruit exserted from calyx, Fruit hairy, Fruit gland-dotted or with gland-tipped hairs, Fruit 2-seeded, Fruit 3-10 seeded, Seeds ovoid to rounded in outline, Seed surface smooth, Seeds olive, brown, or black.

Hoffmannseggia microphylla (syn. Caesalpinia virgata) is a species of flowering plant in the legume family known by the common name wand holdback. It is native to the southwestern United States and Baja California, where it grows in sandy and gravelly soils in the deserts.

This is a twiggy shrub producing many slender, wandlike, mostly naked stems up to two meters tall. The stems are hairy and green and have few leaves for most of the year. Before the leaves fall, they appear as twigs lined with pairs of small oval-shaped leaflets.

The shrub flowers in scattered raceme inflorescences of red-streaked yellow flowers which age to full red. The fruit is a sickle-shaped dehiscent legume pod up to 2.5 centimeters long. It is bumpy with glands and slightly hairy.