Patrick Alexander

Green rabbitbrush has little value as a forage species. An erect shrub, branching from near the base, with a rounded crown, 1 to 3 1/2 feet tall, it flowers July to September and reproduces from seed, and vegetatively by vigorous sprouting.

Sheep and cattle occasionally use it for browse when other feed is not available. Deer browse lightly on it in the summer and winter. Elk utilize it in the winter. It can be a somewhat weedy plant, increasing where there has been serious damage to the more desirable forage.

It quickly and aggressively invades disturbed, open sites including burns and overgrazed rangelands. People sometimes chew the roots of rabbitbrush as gum. It contains rubber, especially when growing in alkali soils.

Patrick Alexander

Patrick Alexander