Chrysothamnus Nauseosus
Chrysothamnus nauseosus, commonly known as Rubber Rabbitbrush, is a native desert shrub that can be found in western North America and from Canada to California, and they can grow in a wide environmental condition. Their name was derived from Latin words with Chrysos for gold, thamnos for shrub and nauseosus refers to the disagreeable flavor of the herbage. Rubber Rabbitbrush can tolerate both low freezing and hot arid temperature. Its seeds germinate in winter or spring after the snow melt on most soils, including saline sites in a few days under cool night (5c) and warm days (15c). The plant is self-fertile and entirely diploid, although polyploidy does occurs in one species, its flowers are hermaphrodite (both male and female organ). Rubber Rabbitbrush can reach 31-229cm or more in height and have a C3 photosynthesis pathway and they also have high photosynthesis rate. The plant is also a fire-adapted species that have a rapid recovery rate and often one of the first species to colonize burned areas by sprouting or from off-site seed. It can provide good cover and nutritional value to other species. In the salt-desert communities of Utah, Black-tailed jackrabbits graze the year's growth of rubber rabbitbrush during dormancy. Rubber Rabbitbrush also have some medicinal uses, and edible uses and other economic uses as well, making this a rather beneficial plant.
Rubber rabbitbrush also know as common rabbitbrush is a shrub typically 0.3 to 2.0 m in height. Some types, however, are smaller while others exceed heights of 3.0 m. Usually several erect stems arise from the base and branch to create a rounded form. Branches are covered with a felt-like tomentum, permeated by a resinous gum, which can vary in color from green, yellow-green, gray-green, to white. Leaf shape can vary from filiform to broadly linear, and leaf length can range from 18 to 63 mm. Like branches, leaves are typically covered with tomentum. The flower heads are generally arranged into a cymose infloresence. Involucral bracts in each head may vary from glabrous to highly tomentose and number between 20 and 25.
