JoAnne Skelly: Native autumn gold

In late summer, rabbitbrush, a gorgeous plant despite its unflattering specific name which means “nauseating,” lines the highways and clusters in clumps between the sagebrush with a striking combination of golden flowers and silver-green foliage. Elna Bakker, an island called California.

My friend Janet jokingly asked me “When are you going to write about rabbitbrush?” because she and many of our friends are suffering allergic reactions due to this plant. This sunflower/Asteraceae family member is renowned for causing anyone who suffers from ragweed or goldenrod allergies the same symptoms: watering eyes, clogged up and/or runny nose, hurting sinuses, sneezing, coughing and gunk in the back of the throat.

However, even though rubber rabbitbrush, Chrysothamnus nauseosus, causes problems for so many people, I still appreciate the addition of its wonderfully warm yellow color to our fall landscape. Fortunately, I’m not allergic to it. People hoping to visit the area are often told by their doctors to avoid bloom season, due to their extreme reactions.

Rabbitbrush certainly is blooming prolifically this year. Just look around and see all the beautiful buttercup yellow everywhere. It seems to be blooming a bit later. I had noticed it started to produce flowers in early August, but then bloom development seemed to slow until mid-to-late September. Now, though! So much color.

According to Mozingo in Shrubs of the Great Basin, rabbitbrush “is typically a plant of waste areas, abandoned farmsteads, fence rows, and disturbed sites in general.” It readily resprouts after fire, often replacing non-resprouting sagebrush and sometimes bitterbrush, to create pure rabbitbrush stands. It produces good seed crops every year, so it easily outcompetes on disturbed sites. At one time, during the rubber shortage during World War II, researchers found that rabbitbrush produced a high-quality rubber, but not in a sufficient quantity to resolve the shortage.

Much of the recent research has focused on finding ways to eliminate rabbitbrush and found it amazingly difficult to eradicate. With at least 20 subspecies that grow in a wide variety of habitats from sagebrush areas to conifer forests and from alkaline sinks to rocky slopes, this plant is diverse and adaptable.

Cattle rarely eat rabbitbrush, but sheep, goats, antelope, and sometimes hungry deer do. I often find butterflies, moths and bees attracted to the flowers as well as birds.

I hope you can enjoy the beauty of this glorious native gold addition to our autumn plant palette, rather than suffer allergic responses.

JoAnne Skelly is Associate Professor & Extension Educator Emerita at University of Nevada Cooperative Extension. Email skellyj@unr.edu.