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Chrysothamnus nauseosus Nutt.
Common Name Rabbitbrush
Family Compositae (Sunflower Family)
 Description
Best known for its intense yellow color closer to fall, the bush can reach heights of almost 5 feet whose twigs are covered with a thick mat of hairs. Foliage is a light blue/gray color, leaves being thin and needle-like. The flowers grow in very dense clusters, lending substantial mass to each flower's rather inconsequential 1/4 inch size.
Native Range
Found throughout the intermountain west. Elevation: 2,000 - 9,000ft.
Culture
Rabbitbrush occurs on dry slopes and along roadways. Prefers dry, alkaline soils. Zones 4 - 6.
Landscape Value
Rabbitbrush tolerates the harshest conditions, yet it always rings in autumn with its bright yellow cluster of flowers that nicely contrasts with the bluish-gray, needle-like foliage. If given water the plant can become rank, floppy and unattractive; does best with no maintenance other than yearly shearing.
Propagation
Can be propagated by seed, but it's easier to just buy it at a nursery. However, to start seed indoors collect seed when they freely pull off flowering heads that have gone to seed mid-October to the beginning of November. Collecting after most of the seed has blown away will probably only leave seed that will germinate poorly. So start with fresh collected seed or purchased seed. Store your collected seed in a dry paper bag at normal room temperature until March or April of the following spring. Don't forget to mark the bag and date it so you know what you've got. Then when the time comes to sow sprinkle seed across the soil in a container. Make sure the soil is light and fluffy not packed down. After sowing seed, lightly press in with your finger or a block of wood. Keep seed and soil surface moist until full germination has occurred. A squirt bottle works well. After true leaves have formed water deeply, only after the very top surface of the soil has started to dry. Once you have small seedlings they are quite tough and may be transplanted as needed.
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A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.
Aldo Leopold
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