greyish-green shrub of desert regions of southwestern United States and Mexico having sparse foliage and terminal spikes of bluish violet flowers; locally important as source of a light-colored honey of excellent flavor
Outside I could see a half dozen wooden stilt homes surrounded by muddy patches and palm trees, a clothesline hung with shirts and sarongs, tree branch kindling stacked under a storage shed, a scrabbly vegetable garden where smoke plumed from a dying fire.