Paperbag Bush

It is widespread in sandy and gravelly slopes, desert dry washes, and canyons in the southwestern deserts of North America, including in creosote bush scrub and Joshua tree woodland plant communities in the Mojave, Sonoran and Chihuahuan Deserts in southern California, Nevada, southwestern Utah, Arizona, western Texas, Chihuahua, Sonora, and Baja California. These bushes occupy a variety of habitats in their range, including washes, gravelly or sandy slopes, shrubland, and woodland, often growing intermixed with other shrubs. The range extends from the eastern slopes of the Sierra Nevada and the deserts of California, east to Texas and south into Mexico. They are relatively common; although both the foliage and flowers are sparse, the distinctive pattern of bags makes them easy to spot from a distance.

The former genus name, "Salazaria", is after astronomer José Salazar y Larregui, Mexican commissioner for the United States and Mexican Boundary Survey of 1848–55.