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Gray Rabbitbrush
Chrysothamnus nauseosus
Your local evidence lens
Separate evidence questions, never one approval badge
A genus split is not a placement verdict. Set a ZIP to read the local documented split.
1. Fire evidence and conditions
- Fire evidence
- Highly flammable — location does not change the cited classification.
- Fire-performance conditions
- No test or rating condition is normalized.
- Fire ecology context
- No section-reviewed fire-ecology context is normalized.
- Placement evidence
- 3 source placement records; source schemes remain separate.
- Evidence regions
- British Columbia; Lake Tahoe Basin, Nevada and California; Yavapai County, Arizona; southern Idaho / Intermountain
- Maintenance
- No sourced horticultural maintenance assertion is normalized; fire-test conditions do not supply maintenance advice.
Typed publication scope: 3 scopes across 3 cited fire sources
2. Why this plant is relevant here
- State distribution
- Documented in AZ, CA, CO, ID, KS, MT, ND, NE, NM, NV, NY, OK, OR, SD, TX, UT, WA, WY.
- Native range
- No current cited or legacy state native range is normalized.
- Introduced / established
- No introduced or established row is normalized; that does not prove native status.
- USDA hardiness
- No hardiness value is normalized.
3. Legal, ecological, and broader status
- Legal-list status
- Set a location for an exact legal-list result; source silence is not clearance.
- Seed-list status
- Set a location to compare the separate state noxious-weed seed layer.
- Reported invasive here
- No ecological invasive report is normalized; that does not prove noninvasiveness.
- Broader regional context
- Aggregate AK, HI, and L48 evidence is shown only as regional context, never as an exact-state finding.
- Federal context
- Federal designations remain separate from state legal-list results.
How to read this page
The status above is computed from the cited rows below: independent recommendations can support a fire-resistant result, an avoid row can produce keep-away, and disagreement stays visible as conflict. Placement notes preserve each source’s own scheme rather than translating unlike rules into one scale. This is evidence about a plant, not permission to plant it in every part of the defensible space; Zone 0 remains noncombustible.
- Form
- shrub
- Grows in
- AZ, CA, CO, ID, KS, MT, ND, NE +10
- Rated in
- British Columbia; Lake Tahoe Basin, Nevada and California; Yavapai County, Arizona; southern Idaho / Intermountain
- Family
- Asteraceae
- Evidence
- 4 cited sources
Where its sources say to plant it
- Fire Resistance of Plants Master Database: plantable at 80' from home
- FireSmart BC Plant Program: suitable for HIZ extended zone and beyond
- Home Landscaping Guide for Lake Tahoe and Vicinity: Fire Hazard column: high
The evidence
Recommends (1)
-
FireSmart BC Plant Program — fire-resistant plant chart
“FireSmart-approved fire-resistant plant”
Avoids (3)
-
Fire Resistance of Plants Master Database
“fire-resistance score 3 of 10”
-
Home Landscaping Guide for Lake Tahoe and Vicinity (Ed. Bulletin 06-01)
“high — Rabbitbrush — Chrysothamnus nauseosus”
Table 1's Fire Hazard column prints “high” for this taxon. The guide calls the rating a rough estimate of potential flammability, not a result of scientific trials. Its footnote says plants that turn brown often become high fire hazards and tells readers to mow grasses and forbs when they begin to turn brown.
-
Fire-Resistant and Fire-Prone Plants Common to Yavapai County (Bulletin 34)
“Fire-Prone Plants”
Listed as Rubber rabbitbrush — Ericameria nauseosa. The bulletin says fire-resistant plants tend to resist ignition when irrigated and maintained, while fire-prone plants may ignite readily and burn intensely.
