WILD FLOWERS OF CALIFORNIA 



69 



768. Hairv Golden Aster 



769. 



770. 



771. 

 772. 



Chrysopsis villosa and 

 vars. 



Chrysopsis Oregana and 



var. 

 Chrysopsis Wrightii 



Chrysopsis Breweri 



Many varieties, each in its 

 region. Some one or oth- 

 er found in nearly all 

 parts of the State. Weedy 

 tendencies. 



Gravelly heds of streams. 

 Coast Ranges. 



Rare. 11,400 ft. San Ber- 

 nardino Mts. 



Sierras, under the pines. 



RAYLESS GOLDEN ROD OR RABBIT BRUSH 

 CHRYSOTHAMNUS 



A difficult group of plants to classify and yet in some regions they cover 

 considerable areas, looking not unlike sagebrush before the yellow clusters 

 of flowers in the fall indicate the difference. They belong more especially to 

 the Great Basin region and enter California at the south and abundantly on 

 the eastern side of the Sierras, both in the foothills and along the flats near 

 creeks in the valleys. The genus has been variously treated by the different 

 authors, using many different generic names such as Bigelovia, Apia pap pus, Lino- 

 osyris, Chrysoma, Chryscoma, Crinitaria, and others. For this reason we will not 

 attempt to give the names. Hall gives 7 species with many varieties in southern 

 California. Jepson does not include any in his "Flora of Middle Western Cali- 

 fornia." 



\\hen the species are more thoroughly known and studied there will probably 

 be in the neghborhood of twenty species and many varieties, or many more species 

 if the varieties are given specific rank. 



The herbage is not liked by stock and seldom eaten, although it is tender com- 

 pared to sagebrush and many other plants. A strong growth of Rabbit brush 

 usually indicates a heavier soil than sagebrush and one in which the water table 

 is nearer the surface. They do not necessarily indicate alkali lands, but are found 

 on the margins where the soil is nearly free from alkali. The yellow masses that 

 one sees in desert regions in the sagebrush area are nearly sure to be caused by 

 either the Rabbit brushes or the little Rabbit brushes (Gutierrecia) . 



Chrysothamnus is shrubby, variable in height up to four feet with narrow entire 

 leaves an inch or so long and clusters of yellow flowers terminating the branchlets. 

 In many of them the herbage is grayish-white in color. Ray flowers uniformly 

 lacking; disk-flowers, 5 to 30. Achenes narrow, small. Pappus of soft copious 

 dull-white or reddish hairs. 



Chiefly in the valleys and slopes of the eastern Sierras to the high mountains. 



ERICAMERIA 

 Low evergreen shrubs with small and often heath-like leaves. Herbage sticky 

 and dotted with glands. Flowers yellow in terminal clusters, September to No- 

 vember. With or without rays. Achenes slender. Pappus of dull-white or yel- 

 lowish bristles turning reddish with age. 



773. Ericameria ericoides Low heather-like shrubs, 



rays 5, in sand dunes 

 along the coast from Los 

 Angeles to beyond San 

 Francisco. 

 Leaves narrow, rays none. 

 Mountains, Coast Ranges, 

 but sparingly in the Si- 

 erras. 

 Xot common. San Bernar- 

 dino Mts. and vicinity. 

 Entering into composition 

 of chaparral along the 

 foothills from western 

 Los Angeles county to 

 San Diego county. 



774. 



775. 



776. 



Ericameria arboresc< 



Ericameria Parishi 



Ericameria pini folia 



