Summary ⁶

Forestiera pubescens, commonly known as stretchberry, desert olive, tanglewood, devil's elbow, and New Mexico olive, is a deciduous shrub or small tree found in the Southwestern United States. It is common in open woodlands, brushy areas, and near streams.

Botanical Information ⁷

Forestiera pubescens, known commonly as New Mexico Olive looks like a bush with branches displaying rows of leaves. The New Mexico Olives leaves are small paired leaves. This plant has yellow flowers in the spring. It grows up to 15 ft. This plant needs summer sun. The New Mexico Olive is native and commonly found in the Bosque.

Ecological Information ⁸

The plant is mainly planted for beauty and habitat for birds, who eat the berries.

Ethnobotanical Information ⁸

This plant is not used for food because it's purple berries are considered to be inedible to humans.

References ⁹

en.m.wikipedia, org/wiki/Ligustrum_vulgare
www.treenm.com/nm-tree-species/new-mexico-olive/
www.highcountrygardens.com/forestiera-neomexican
www.wildflower.org/plants/result.php?id_plant=fopu2

About the Author ⁹

Student author(s)*: Jonathan (age 9) from homeschool group

*The entries in this field guide have been edited by Yerba Mansa Project staff to ensure that they contain quality, fact-checked content and standardized formatting.

Sources and Credits

1. (c) Jerry Oldenettel, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://www.flickr.com/photos/jroldenettel/5132458666/
2. (c) Mary PK Burns, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), https://www.flickr.com/photos/maryburns/4523902022/
3. (c) Mary PK Burns, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC), https://www.flickr.com/photos/maryburns/4523901754/
4. (c) Jerry Oldenettel, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC-SA), https://www.flickr.com/photos/jroldenettel/25815411503/
5. (c) tyrrellscience98, all rights reserved
6. Adapted by caseynm from a work by (c) smiller33, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)
7. Adapted by smiller33 from a work by (c) tyrrellscience98, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)
8. (c) smiller33, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)
9. (c) caseynm, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA)

More Info

• iNat taxon page
• Biodiversity Heritage Library
• BOLD Systems BIN search
• Calflora
• CalPhotos
• eFloras.org
• Flora of North America (beta)
• Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF)
• HOSTS - a Database of the World's Lepidopteran Hostplants
• IPNI (with links to POWO, WFO, and BHL)
• Jepson eFlora
• NatureServe Explorer 2.0
• SEINet Symbiota portals
• Tropicos
• USDA PLANTS database
• World Flora Online

iNat Map