with less woolly undersurface of the leaves, and does not seem to 

 merit rank as a separate species. 



Oceanspray ranges from British Columbia to western Montana and 

 California. In California it is distributed from Los Angeles north- 

 ward through the Coast Range, with occasional occurrence in the 

 Sierra Nevada Mountains. This shrub occupies a variety of sites, 

 ranging from the moist shady forests of the coastal plains and 

 mountains to the more arid timbered areas of the interior. It is a 

 very common undershrub in ponderosa pine forests and often ap- 

 pears in moderate abundance on cut-over lands of the Northwest. 

 The plant often is common along creeks and river banks, but also 

 grows in well-drained, sandy, gravelly, or rocky soils of the drier 

 slopes, as well as in the rich, deep, moist soils of canyon bottoms. 

 It extends from near sea level to an elevation of about 7,000 feet. 



This shrub is usually regarded as distinctly minor in value for 

 range livestock. Its palatability is rated as zero to fair for cattle 

 and poor to fair for sheep. A few observers have ranked it as good 

 forage for sheep, but the ranges studied were probably not in opti- 

 mum condition. The leafage and young twigs are generally eaten 

 more readily by livestock in the fall than during the spring and sum- 

 mer. Actually, this species furnishes a greater bulk of forage than 

 is often conceded as the plants occur abundantly on some range areas. 

 In Washington, and perhaps elsewhere throughout its range, ocean- 

 spray is grazed readily by both deer and elk. These game animals 

 eat it during all seasons with maximum use in fall and winter. 

 Dixon 1 reports that it is fair forage for mule deer in California. 



Oceanspray is normally a symmetrical shrub with erect, somewhat 

 spreading branches. Because it is very handsome in bloom, with 

 large panicles of creamy-white flowers on slender arching branches, 

 this plant has attained wide popularity as a cultivated ornamental. 

 Although the flower buds appear early in the spring, they do not 

 burst into full flower until June or July ; the flowering period then 

 continues until late August. The persistent outer flower parts 

 (calyx) become brownish and remain -intact in the broad fruiting 

 clusters long after the petals and seed have fallen; they remain at- 

 tached until late in the fall and frequently even throughout the 

 winter giving the shrubs a shaggy appearance. 



Several other species of Sericotheca occur in the West but their 

 forage value is very limited, the foliage normally being of low pal- 

 atability. Of these, bush rockspirea (S. dwmosa) is the most widely 

 distributed and best known. It resembles creambush but occurs in 

 drier climates from Wyoming to Oregon, eastern California, New 

 Mexico, and Chihuahua, Mexico. It is usually smaller than ocean- 

 spray, being a low compact shrub 16 to 40 inches high, with narrower 

 and less diffuse panicles and with the leaves smaller, long-wedge- 

 shaped at the base, and prolonged along a winged leafstalk, in con- 

 trast to the abruptly contracted base of the leaf blade of oceanspray. 

 As its common name indicates, bush rockspirea grows in rocky sites, 

 usually in dry or moderately dry soils in the mountains to elevations 

 of 9,500 feet, frequently in the niches of rocky ledges and cliffs. 



i Dixon, J. S. A STUDY OF THE LIFE HISTORY AND FOOD HABITS OF MULE DF.EK IN 

 CALIFORNIA. PART 2 FOOD HABITS. Calif. Fish and Game 20(4) : [315]-354, illus. 1934. 



