leaves for tobacco. 1 It is also one of those myriad shrubs called by the 

 unidentifiable name buckbrush. 



Snowbrush is one of the most widespread members of the genus, being com- 

 mon in the mountains from British Columbia and Saskatchewan to South 

 Dakota, south into Colorado and California. It is well known in the Rockies, 

 Cascades, and Sierras. Snowbrush has a wide elevational distribution and is 

 found from the pinon-juniper belt up to the aspen type. In Colorado it often 

 occurs at an altitude of 10,000 feet but, according to Professor Jepson, 2 grows 

 up to only 7,000 feet in California. It inhabits a wide variety of sites, and 

 abounds in all exposures and most degrees of sunlight, occurring on practically 

 any soil that is well-drained. It is typically gregarious, commonly growing in 

 .small patches or extensive brush fields. 



This shrub is well adapted to invade arid dominate burns, since the germina- 

 tion of the abundant, long-lived seeds is stimulated by heat and also because 

 numerous sprouts quickly arise from the root crowns of burned individuals. 

 Encouraged by fires, snowbrush has greatly increased its volume, and now 

 sometimes forms dense and inaccessible brush fields especially in California. 

 This rank growth of shrubs, often several thousand acres in size, develops on 

 areas which once supported valuable stands of timber. It provides an excellent 

 soil cover because of its compact growth, and is valuable in the protection of 

 watersheds. Its very density, however, sometimes hinders the reproduction of 

 more valuable timber species, owing to shade and root competition. Natural 

 reproduction and the invasion of timber species is slow. In localities where 

 large dense fields of snowbrush occur, reproduction is often limited to the 

 margins of the stands, where seed trees are present. 



The general forage value of snowbrush is very slight, and this plant is 

 worthless for cattle and horses. Goats, sheep, and deer sometimes graze the 

 blossoms slightly as well as the new shoots which spring up after firesi, 

 although such utilization is hardly important enough to warrant consideration 

 of this species in range carrying capacity estimates. Ordinarily goats will not 

 browse the species unless they are obliged to do so. Hatton 3 reports that on 

 the Lassen Forest in northeastern California efforts were made to eradicate 

 snowbrush and manzanita from the range by a system of excessive goat graz- 

 ing, but the results were unsatisfactory, as the goats scarcely browsed snow- 

 brush despite that they were evidently in poorer condition when they came 

 off the range than before. However, L. S. Smith of the United States Forest 

 Service reported in 1931 that for the past 5 years a milk-goat band of about 

 90 head has been grazed on a brush area near Truckee, Calif., largely under- 

 white fir, the dominant local understory species of which type is snowbrush. 

 Smith states that at least 60 percent of the snowbrush "on the slopes for 

 quite a distance each side of their corrals" had beeu killed by the goats during 

 this period ; that the grasses and weeds away from the meadow were trampled 

 but apparently were increasing, that so far no damage to conifer reproduc- 

 tion was noticeable and that the goats were in good condition when removed 

 from the range. Goats sometimes kill shrubs by girdling. Cases are reported 

 where domestic livestock and game animals have browsed snowbrush heavily, 

 but that apparently occurred in winter when a shortage of more palatable 

 feed existed. Elk appear to browse snowbrush only in winter, but deer con- 

 sume the foliage at any season if better feed is not present. Deer, however, 

 like to bed in snowbrush, which probably accounts for its utlizatiou as browse 

 by those game animals. 



Snowbrush averages from 2 to 5 feet in height. On unfavorable sites it may 

 form a lower and more spreading bush, while under favorable conditions it. may 

 attain a height of 12 feet in simulation of a small tree. The white, sweet-scented 

 flowers, borne in clusters from 1 to 4 inches long, appear in July and August. 



Wahlenberg 4 has called attention to the nitrogen-fixing root-nodules on snow- 

 brush and its value as an aid to ponderosa-pine reproduction. 



1 Schneider, A. PHARMACAL PLANTS AND THEIR CULTURE. Calif. State Bd. Forestry 

 Bull. 2, 175 pp. 1912. 



2 Jepson, W. L. A MANUAL OF THE FLOWERING PLANTS OF CALIFORNIA. 1,238 pp., illus. 

 Berkeley, Calif. [1925.] 



8 Hatton, J. H. ERADICATION OF CHAPARRAL BY GOAT GRAZING. LASSEN NATIONAL FOR- 

 EST. U. S. Dept. Agr., Rev. Forest Serv. Invest. 2 : 25-28, illus. 1913. 



4 Wahlenberg, W. G. EFFECT OF CEANOTHCS BRUSH ON WESTERN YELLOW PINE PLANTA- 

 TIONS IN THE NORTHERN ROCKY MOUNTAINS. Jour. Agr. Research [U. S.I 41 : 601-612, 

 illus. 1930. 



