Ericameria parryi

Ericameria parryi (syn. Chrysothamnus parryi) is a species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common name Parry's rabbitbrush. It is native to much of the western United States.[1][2]

Ericameria parryi
var. aspera
Conservation status
Secure  (NatureServe)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Asterids
Order:	Asterales
Family:	Asteraceae
Tribe:	Astereae
Genus:	Ericameria
Species:	E. parryi
Binomial name
Ericameria parryi (A.Gray) G.L.Nesom & Baird
Synonyms
Chrysothamnus parryi

This plant is quite variable, with certain characters defining each of its many varieties. In general, it is a shrub producing several upright stems reaching 10 centimeters to one meter tall, but usually not reaching that height. The branches are coated in a fuzz of white or greenish fibers. The leaves are linear to spatula-shaped and measure one to 8 centimeters long. The leaves are hairless to quite hairy or woolly in texture, and they may be glandular and sticky. The inflorescence is often a mass of many flower heads, but sometimes the heads are solitary. Each head has up to 20 yellow disc florets. There are no ray florets. The fruit is an achene up to 8 millimeters long tipped with a whitish or brown pappus up to 7.5 millimeters in length.[1][2]

Flowering occurs mostly in July through September, and the achenes develop and disperse in the fall and into the winter. The seed is wind-dispersed. The plant's lifespan is 15 to 20 years.[2]

This hardy plant occupies several habitat types. It can be found in mountains and foothills and its population will often increase upon environmental disturbance, such as grazing.[2]

There are at least 12 varieties:[1]

• E. parryi var. affinis - limited to Colorado, New Mexico,[3] and Arizona[1]
• E. parryi var. aspera - (rough rabbitbrush) limited to California and Nevada
• E. parryi var. attenuata - (narrow-bract rabbitbrush)
• E. parryi var. howardii - (Howard's rabbitbrush) in and east of the Rocky Mountains
• E. parryi var. imula - (low rabbitbrush) small-statured variety endemic to San Bernardino County, California,[1] around Bear Valley[4]
• E. parryi var. latior - (broadleaf rabbitbrush) limited to northern California
• E. parryi var. monocephala - (one-headed rabbitbrush) common in the Sierra Nevada of eastern California and western Nevada
• E. parryi var. montana - (mountain rabbitbrush) small plant known only from the Red Conglomerate Peaks of Idaho and Montana
• E. parryi var. nevadensis - (Nevada rabbitbrush)
• E. parryi var. parryi - widespread in interior west
• E. parryi var. salmonensis - (Salmon River rabbitbrush) endemic to Idaho, where it grows along the Salmon River
• E. parryi var. vulcanica - (Vulcan rabbitbrush) uncommon, small variety endemic to the Sierra Nevada of California

References

1. Ericameria parryi. Flora of North America.
2. McArthur, E. D. and J. R. Taylor. Chrysothamnus parryi. Wildland Shrubs of the United States and its Territories: Thamnic Descriptions. USDA, Rocky Mountain Research Station, Shrub Sciences Laboratory.
3. Ericameria parryi. USDA PLANTS Profile.
4. E. parryi var. imula. The Jepson Manual.