Sharp-bracted rubber rabbitbrush is another of the many subspecies of this widely-
growing and variable species that inhabits our local mountains and deserts.  This is one of the less common ones but is very distinctive because of the spreading to recurved phyllaries.  It's a large shrub, reaching some 5' tall and often broadly rounded, and having stems with the typical nauseosus yellowish-green tomentum formed into a sort of gluey matrix.  The leaves are 1/2" to 1" long, threadlike, often early deciduous and curved.  The involucres are glabrous, sticky, yellowish-green, and from 1/4" to 3/8" high with filiform phyllaries that have abruptly spreading or recurved tips and spreading corolla lobes.  This subspecies can usually be found in gravelly arroyos in creosote bush scrub and chaparral from 2000' to 5000', or may be seen along roadways.  It grows in the Antelope Valley, and in the southern Mojave Desert from Tejon Pass to the Little San Bernardinos, and like its relatives is an autumn bloomer.  These pictures were taken in late September along Pine Canyon Road north of Liebre Mt.

Click here for Latin name derivations: 1) Ericameria  2) nauseosa  3) ceruminosa.
Pronunciation: kry-so-THAM-nus naw-zee-OH-sus ser-oo-min-OH-sus.
Formerly Chrysothamnus nauseosus ssp. ceruminosus.
Click here for Botanical Term Meanings.