chamiso

Also cha·mi·za
Also

[shuh-mee-zoh, chuh-]

noun

plural

chamisos 

1. a saltbush, Atriplex canescens, of the western U.S. and Mexico, having grayish, scurfy foliage.

Word History and Origins

Origin of chamiso¹

Borrowed into English from Mexican Spanish around 1840–50

Example Sentences

On the Sierra the underbrush is characterized by the pungent manzanita, the California buckeye and the chamiso; the last two growing equally abundantly on the Coast Range.

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The chamiso and the manzanita, with a variety of shrubby oaks and thorny plants, often grow together in a dense and sometimes quite impenetrable undergrowth, forming what is known as “chaparral”; if the chamiso occurs alone the thicket is a “chamisal.”

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To the southward is Paradise Valley, a plain desert strewn with greasewood and chamiso; and down in the floor of Death Valley is, or rather was, Greenland.

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Several species of oak are found upon the hillsides and in the valleys, while mingled with them in many places appear such shrubs as the California lilac, chamiso, and manzanita.

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Chamiso and Guiamard have recently thrown great light on the formation of the coral islands in the Pacific.

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