IMPORTANT WESTERN BROWSE PLANTS 109 
asa browse. Except on overgrazed range it is seldom eaten by cattle 
or sheep, although more by goats. 3 
Inland Jersey-tea (CU. ovatus), also called narrowleaf redroot, is 
primarily an eastern species but ranges as far westward as the north- 
eastern bases of the Rockies. It is one of the best browse species in 
the Black Hills region. 
Snowbrush (C. velutinus) (fig. 31), for which mountain balm, 
sticky laurel, and tobacco-brush are variant vernacular names, is one 
of the most widely distributed and abundant of all Ceanothi; its 
range extends from British Columbia to California, Colorado, South 
Dakota, and Saskatchewan. It is one of the common chaparral 
species of California and elsewhere, often forming impenetrable 
thickets. Its characteristic leaves, whitish beneath, average the larg- 
est in the genus, but are thick, sticky, and under normal conditions 
unpalatable to domestic animals except goats, which will graze it 
shghtly. In certain parts of Idaho the species is sometimes claimed 
to be fairly good to good sheep feed; material grazing of this-shrub 
by sheep, however, is a sure sign of overgrazing or other starvation 
conditions. The tough twigs and intricate dense growth further 
militate against its browse utility. Snowbrush is often a pioneer 
species in burns. 
An attempt (5S) to eradicate this shrub and manzanita was made 
on the Lassen Forest in northeastern California by subjecting the 
areas to excessive goat grazing. The goats, however, scarcely touched 
the snowbrush, despite their rather unsatisfactory condition when 
they came off the range. 
Whitebark soapbloom ((’. divaricatus), sometimes called tall 
mountain-lilac, a large California and Lower California shrub, fre- 
quently occurs as a dense chaparral species in the foothills and lower 
slopes up to about 5,000 feet. It is of rather lmited value as live- 
stock forage but is important as a covert and browse for deer, and 
the blossoms are locally used as a substitute for soap (118). 
Fendler soapbloom (C. fendlerz) (fig. 32, A, B), known also as 
buckbrush and deer brush, occurs from South Dakota to western Texas 
and Arizona; it has been collected at elevations ranging from 4,500 
to 11,000 feet, but probably is commonest in brush types of the 
yellow pine belt. The flowering period extends from late May or 
early June to late July, the fruit ripening in August and September. 
Although spiny-twigged, the spray of this species is delicate; and 
since the leaves are palatable and the species common, widely dis- 
tributed, and usually abundant, this is a very important browse, . 
occupying to a limited degree in the southern Rocky Mountain re- 
gion, especially in New Mexico, Arizona, southern Utah, and south- 
western Colorado, the position held in California by bluebrush. On 
the whole it is regarded as a good or very good browse for all classes 
of livestock, including horses, although farther north it 1s sometimes 
held to be only fair—at least on cattle range. It is a famous deer 
browse. 
Martin soapbloom (C. martini), a large-leaved, white-flowered 
bush of Utah and Nevada, is an important local species of high pal- 
atability for sheep and cattle. 
