Al Schneider's Rocky Mountains Plant Descriptions

Parry's Rabbitbrush
Ericameria parryi
Aster family (Asteraceae)

Parry's Rabbitbrush (Ericameria parryi) typically grows to a bit more than two feet tall and is found at woodland borders and in . Long, narrow leaves sometimes spiral. Flowers are large compared to other members of the . The are long and and flowers are numerous in tight clusters. There are several differing in the number of flowers per head, the hairiness of the leaves and stems, the height of the plant, etc. The very common Rubber Rabbitbrush (Ericameria nauseosa) is a much taller and wider plant than Parry's Rabbitbrush.

Hall and Harbour are given credit for collecting this species on an 1862 trip in Colorado led by the eminent botanist Charles Parry. Asa Gray named the species Linosyris parryi in 1863, it was renamed Chrysothamnus parryi by Edward Greene in 1895, and it has had many other names, the latest and now most widely accepted being that given by Nesom and Baird in 1993: Ericameria parryi.


©2015 Richard Spellenberg

Description

Shrubs 10-30" tall, twigs covered with a white or green hairiness. Leaves 1-3" long and about 1/12" wide, 1-3 , flat, to . Flowerheads several to many, the tending to be . to over 1/2" high and about 1/4" wide, hairy to , outer with elongated tips, the inner papery-looking with obvious thickened . yellow or creamy yellow. a hairy .

Field Marks

Small shrub with an upright cylindrical growth habit topped by numerous elongated clusters of yellow flowers.

© Al Schneider

nerves -- Another name for a vein.

corolla -- The name for all the petals of a flower taken together.

meadow -- Large grass and wildflower filled area with few, if any, trees.

phyllaries -- Leaflike bracts covering the flowers before opening and remaining under the flower after it opens. Also called "bracts". Only used with the sunflower family (Asteraceae).

achene -- a type of simple dry fruit produced by many species of flowering plants. For example, a rose hip holds a few achenes.

A herb is a plant whose stems die back to the ground in the winter.

midrib -- The central and most prominent vein of a leaf or leaf-like thing.

Bracts are modified leaves associated with a flower.

An inflorescence is a group or cluster of flowers arranged on a stem.

glabrous -- smooth, glossy, having no bristles or hair-like structures. Bald.

fruit -- any seed-bearing structure in flowering plants. It is formed from the ovary after flowering.

In a pea flower the two bottom petals are fused together forming a boat-like structure called the keel. The glumes of grasses may have a sharp projecting ridge like the keel of a boat.

Involucre is the name given to the circle or spiral collection of bracts around a flower-cluster.

elongate -- long and thin, slender.

subspecies -- Plants within a species can be divided into two or more supspecies when a botanist gives them subspecies names and describes how the subspecies differ. Often, variety and subspecies are used interchangeably.

genus -- A subdivision of a botanical Family in which all members have a significant number of similar characteristics.

oblong -- Having an elongated form with somewhat parallel sides. Rectangular.

linear -- Long and very narrow like a blade of grass.