09/01/2026
Have you seen this plant before? 🌱
This plant is known as Mormon Tea or (𝘌𝘱𝘩𝘦𝘥𝘳𝘢 𝘷𝘪𝘳𝘪𝘥𝘪𝘴)
Mormon Tea is a rugged evergreen shrub native to the American Southwest.
Its appearance is pretty unique. It’s an upright shrub that can grow up to about 5 feet tall, with slender, jointed, bright green stems. These stems perform photosynthesis for the plant.
Its leaves are reduced to tiny, scale-like leaves that grow in pairs at the joints, or nodes, and quickly dry up and fall off.
Mormon Tea can also be made into a tea. Various indigenous people use the plant for traditional purposes, and Mormon pioneers also used it to make tea when other sources of tea were limited.
If you're hiking around Dead Horse Point State Park, pay close attention—you'll probably find some Mormon Tea growing throughout the park! 🌵
