Jojoba

Other names

Goatnut

Growth habit

Shrub

Perennation

Cultivated as annual

Native distribution

SW US, N Mexico

Biocultural value

Seed oil is used in cosmetics and pharmaceuticals as well as a top grade industrial lubricant.

Location

Robison Herb Garden

Source of plant

Richters

Description

A woody, stiff-branched, glabrous, multi-stemmed shrub to 2m; young branches grey-green, slender pliable. Leaves to 4cm, coriaceous, somewhat thickened, oblong-ovate, opposite, green, yellow-green, short-petioled to subsessile. Flowers unisexual, axillary, sepals 5-6, petals lacking; males clustered, small, yellow, sepals to 5mm, females solitary, pale green, sepals to 15mm, nectaries absent. Capsule ovoid, 3-angled, partly enclosed by the sepals.

USDA Hardiness Zone

10

Special characteristics

tender perennial, other ethnobotanical uses