Rabbitbrush in late spring. Rabbitbrush is sometimes referred to as 'Rabbit Brush,' Rabbit Bush, and 'Golden Rabbitbrush' because of the yellow flowers between summer and autumn. The dry flower heads from last season can be snipped off with pruning shears. They are easy to handle. The only other pruning this specimen receives is when lower branches lean to the ground.
Rabbitbrush is in fact a part of the Asteraceae family which includes the Sunflower. It includes many, many plants as Asteraceae is the largest plant family on earth. This family also includes the Thistles, the Panamint Daisy, the Desert Star Daisy, and many more. Butterflies and bees are especially drawn to them.
A single Rabbitbrush specimen can grow to over 5 feet high. They have long soft silver green leaves. In the tradition of sunflowers, some say that the flowers of the Rabbitbrush are eatable and perhaps full of nutritious goodness just like Sunflowers. You find claims on the internet that Native Americans have and continue to use the leaves and flowers for medicinal purposes. A warm tea made from the leaves is said to relieve head ache. We haven't tried it yet, but it's easy to imagine that Rabbitbrush played an important role in everyday life here for as long as humans have been living here. Especially so since not for so long the plant has been considered a weed.
The sustainability philosophers talk about planting native plants almost in spiritual terms because they generally believe that in order to be more or less perfectly sustainable, that which is to grow and sustain itself will do so best if it is anciently established in the land of its ancestor's habits. On the other hand, a plant such as the Rabbitbrush is so at home here that it can really make itself at home if you let it.
It does feel good to cultivate plants that have been living around here for millions of years. And once you begin to investigate the lifeworld as it's been in these deserts you discover a complex world made up of a list of major influences: Big Sage, Rabbitbrush, Hop Sage, Mormon Tea, a large array of wildflowers and the conifers. Each of these species are lovable in their own, but together, when the Quail and Mourning Dove saunter beneath the Rabbitbrush, the spiritual terms begin to make sense. Or at least it seems that they're about to begin to make sense. Could it be that Quail and other local birds prefer the plants of the big outside? What sort of reasons would there be for that, the feel and smell of ancient memory?
For some really detailed descriptions of neighboring Rabbitbrush, visit the Wildflowers and Other Plants of Southern California.
