Ericameria nauseosa var. oreophila

Great basin rabbitbrush, Great Basin Rabbitbrush

Family: Asteraceae · Type: shrub · Native

Great basin rabbitbrush is a California native shrub found in the eastern Sierra Nevada, Tehachapi, southern Sierra Nevada, western Transverse Ranges, San Gabriel and San Bernardino Mountains, Peninsular Ranges, Great Basin, and Death Valley Mountains in alkaline soils at elevations of 1,000 to 3,000 meters. Flowering from August to October, this plant produces yellow flowers in narrow clusters with heads 6 to 10 millimeters long. Growing 0.5 to 2.5 meters tall with closely tomentose yellow-green stems densely covered in leaves, it forms a distinctive rounded shrub. Its leaves are narrow and thread-like, measuring 20 to 60 millimeters long, with a sparse, delicate appearance. The flower corollas are 6 to 9 millimeters long, with spreading to recurved lobes that create a distinctive open-branching structure.

Habitat: Common. Generally alkaline soils

Bloom period: Aug-Oct

Elevation: 1000-3000 m

Bioregions: CaRH, SN (e slope), Teh, s SCoRI, WTR, SnGb, SnBr, PR, GB, DMtns (Death Valley), w edge DMoj

California counties: San Bernardino, Mono, Kern, Lassen, Los Angeles, Inyo, Plumas, Riverside, Sacramento, Shasta, Sierra, Modoc, Siskiyou, Tulare, Ventura, Trinity, Mendocino, Tehama, El Dorado, Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, San Diego

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.