Semi-desert. Openings. Spring and summer.
Butler Wash, Utah, August 27, 2007.

This handsome shrub grows to four feet; has shiny, spade-shaped to nearly round leaves and numerous lemon-yellow flowers; and blooms from late spring through the summer, depending on moisture.

Some sources, including Arthur Cronquist of Intermountain Flora and Philip Munz, the expert California botanist, indicate that the genus name honors Christopher Encel, a 16th century botanist who published a book on oak galls in 1577; other very reputable sources indicate that the person honored is Christoph Entzelt, Lutheran clergyman who wrote a book about medicinal uses of plants in 1551.  With little more to base my judgment on, I would stay with the most reputable Cronquist and Munz.  It also is most plausible that the Latinization of the name "Encel" would produce "Encelia".

 "Frutescens" is from the Latin for "shrub, or shrub-like".

Semi-desert. Openings. Spring and summer.
Confluence Trail, Canyonlands National Park, Utah, May 20, 2004.

Semi-desert. Openings. Spring and summer.
Butler Wash, Utah, August 27, 2007.