Rubber Rabbitbrush (Ericameria nauseosa)

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Botanical name: Ericameria nauseosa • Bloom season: Late summer to fall‍ ‍• Bloom color: Bright gold‍ ‍• Host plant (Great Basin): bordered patch

A rounded gray-green shrub that turns solid gold in September, when almost nothing else in the high desert is flowering. This is the most important late-season nectar source in the Great Basin: it fuels migrating monarchs heading south and gives native bees the last real meal before winter. It is also a heavyweight for specialist bees: ninety-three species are recorded on rabbitbrush across the western US.

Side note: Despite popular belief, the Rubber Rabbitbrush is not responsible for the seasonal allergies often experienced in the Great Basin area. Wind-pollinated ragweed typically causes them. Rabbitbrush pollen is too heavy to be carried by wind.

Botanical name: Ericameria nauseosa • Bloom season: Late summer to fall‍ ‍• Bloom color: Bright gold‍ ‍• Host plant (Great Basin): bordered patch

A rounded gray-green shrub that turns solid gold in September, when almost nothing else in the high desert is flowering. This is the most important late-season nectar source in the Great Basin: it fuels migrating monarchs heading south and gives native bees the last real meal before winter. It is also a heavyweight for specialist bees: ninety-three species are recorded on rabbitbrush across the western US.

Side note: Despite popular belief, the Rubber Rabbitbrush is not responsible for the seasonal allergies often experienced in the Great Basin area. Wind-pollinated ragweed typically causes them. Rabbitbrush pollen is too heavy to be carried by wind.

Size:

Plant Characteristics

Botanical Name: Ericameria nauseosa

Common Name: Rubber Rabbitbrush

Native: Native

Sun: Full Sun

Water: Low

Bloom Time: Late summer to fall

Bloom Color: Bright gold

Pollinators: Bees; Butterflies; Moths

Deer Resistant: Yes

Mature Size: W 2'-5' x H 2'-5'

Soil: Sharply drained; lean, rocky, alkaline soil

Plant Type: Deciduous shrub

USDA Zones: 4 to 9

Spread Habit: Clumping; self-sows

Available As: Live plant

Native Region: Great Basin; Colorado Plateau; Wyoming Basin; Mojave Desert; Western Great Plains (widespread western)

Host Plant (Great Basin): bordered patch

Host Plant (Elsewhere in North America): northern checkerspot, Schinia tertia, Schinia unimacula, Walsingham's flower moth

Growing Notes

Full sun and sharply drained, lean, rocky, alkaline ground. Like sagebrush it will not tolerate irrigation, so keep it out of watered beds and off drip lines. Water through the first summer only and then stop. Give it five feet of room. It thrives in disturbed, poor soil where nothing else will hold.

  • Water: Low

  • Sun: Full Sun

  • Soil: Sharply drained; lean, rocky, alkaline soil

  • Mature size: W 2'-5' x H 2'-5'

Maintenance

Prune rabbitbrush in early spring if you want to keep it dense, cutting back the previous year's growth by about a third; left alone, it opens up and gets leggy with age. Don't cut into old wood hard, and don't prune in fall, since you'd remove next year's flowers and expose the crown. No fertilizer, no summer water. It self-sows in bare ground.