P. spinosum is native to the
desert washes in the
Colorado Desert in
Southern California, the
Sonoran Desert in western
Arizona, and most of eastern
Baja California state including several northern
Gulf of California (Sea of Cortez) islands, The tree is common in
Joshua Tree National Park, where it is called the
smoketree. The range of
P. spinosum is centered north-south along the
Lower Colorado River Valley ranging northwest into the eastern
Mojave Desert, west into mostly all of the
Colorado Desert-(subsection of Sonoran Desert), and east of the
Colorado River in southwestern Arizona's
Sonoran Desert. To the west in
Baja California it borders the western Gulf of California; it occurs on the islands there including
Isla Ángel de la Guarda, but not
Tiburon Island. To the east in
Sonora, the species ranges into the northwest of the great
Gran Desierto de Altar, on the northern shore of the Gulf of California. In Arizona, the RangeMap also shows that the ranges center on the river courses of southwest Arizona, specifically, the
Bill Williams River in the north, then the
Gila River in the south. The range also extends into extreme southern Nevada, mostly adjacent the Colorado River. ==References==