Round Valley Rabbitbrush and Other Colorful Tales

Rubber Rabbitbrush is positively iridescent in autumn.

A member of the aster family, rabbitbrush flowers brilliantly yellow from August to October as other plants fade, making it one of the most colorful of California’s fall plants.

It thrives on arid rangelands to montane openings, even when the soil is poor, coarse or alkaline. Dense stands are often found on degraded rangelands, the U.S. Forest Service writes.

Native Americans used it as a yellow dye, for medicinal tea and chewing gum. The species name “Nauseosa” refers to the smell given off when leaves or flowers are crushed. Some think it smells like pineapple, others as rubbery.

It is that rubbery quality that has had it studied as a natural source of rubber and fuel. Throughout the Eastern Sierra, rabbitbrush is now carpeting the high plains with bright yellow clusters.

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Eastern Sierra color spotter Gigi de Jong was moved by its beauty to praise it in reports from Pine Creek Canyon, Round Valley and Rock Creek Canyon near Bishop. Here’s what she reported:

• Lower Pine Creek Canyon (7,400′) – Patchy (10-50%) – The black cottonwood along Pine Creek seem to be at odds with each other – some are brightly yellow and others are still verdantly green. This canyon has California’s finest display of cottonwood, at peak.
• Upper Pine Creek Canyon (7,400′) – Near Peak (50-75%) GO NOW! – Aspen at the top of the canyon look like beams of sunshine emanating from behind and inside a forest of evergreens. One line of aspen presented a golden invitation to hike the Gable Lakes trail.
• Round Valley (4,692′) – Just Starting (0-10%) – The towering cottonwoods and oaks that dot Round Valley are just beginning to glow. Their golden crowns sway gently to light breezes above still-green grassy fields. Rabbitbrush are everywhere, brightening their wild fields like pure sunshine and perfuming the air like honey. Visitors to the Round Valley (north of Bishop) were out exploring, walking, photographing, taking hay rides, pleine air painting and, as Gigi did on her yellow BMW 650GS “Queen Bee,” enjoying a “spectacular” tour by motorbike.
• Lower Rock Creek Canyon – Just Starting (0-10%) – Rock Creek Rd at Tom’s Place is just starting; the same for lower Rock Creek Trail, a famous mountain bike route.
• Upper Rock Creek Canyon – Near Peak (75-100%) GO NOW! – The drive up the canyon begins with green, then patches of yellow appear around Iris Campground. Orange and red splashes pop out further up. It’s a mash up of everything from green to yellow to red at Mosquito Flat. Fall started late, but the cold snap last week hurried the change … like someone arriving late to a party, determined to make a big entrance. There’s color everywhere and it’s not as uniform as it often is. That’s the beauty of Eastern Sierra … it always takes you by surprise.