Whiteflower Rabbitbrush

Ericameria albida is common in the Great Basin region.

Plants 10–150 cm . Stems erect to ascending, pale green when young, becoming whitish, fastigiately branched, glabrous, resinous at and distal to nodes. Leaves usually ascending, recurved when older; blades filiform (adaxially sulcate), 15–35 × 0.5–2 mm, midnerves obscure, apices acute, often mucronate, faces glabrous, gland-dotted (in pits and sessile); axillary leaf fascicles often present. Heads in rounded, cymiform arrays (to 5 cm wide). Peduncles usually less than 10 mm (ebracteate). Involucres turbinate, 6–10 × 2–4 mm. Phyllaries 15–20 in 3–4 series, green to tan, ovate to lanceolate, 1.5–6 × 0.7–1.5 mm, unequal, outer herbaceous or herbaceous-tipped, inner mostly chartaceous (bodies truncate or tapering gradually or abruptly to bases of herbaceous appendages), midnerves faint (margins membranous, usually ciliate), apices (outer and mid) cuspidate (tips squarrose), abaxial faces glabrous, resinous. Ray florets 0. Disc florets 5–7; corollas 4.7–7 mm. Cypselae tan, narrowly turbinate to subcylindric or narrowly ellipsoid, 4–5 mm (5-ribbed), moderately hairy to sericeous, often gland-dotted (glands spheric, glistening) distally; pappi whitish, 4.5–5.5 mm. 2n = 18.

Bigelowia albida M. E. Jones ex A. Gray, Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 17: 209. 1881 (as Bigelovia); Chrysothamnus albidus (M. E. Jones ex A. Gray) Greene

Ericameria albida is a North American species of flowering shrub in the family Asteraceae known by the common name white flowered rabbitbrush. It is native to desert regions in the western United States mostly in the Great Basin (Utah, Nevada, and eastern California (Inyo, Mono, and San Bernardino Counties; one report of it in Lassen County is from an urban area).

Ericameria albida grows in dry, alkaline plains in desert regions. It is a shrub sometimes reaching a height of 150 cm (4.9 ft). Leaves are thin and thread-like, up to 35 mm (1.4 in) long. The tips of its erect branches hold dense inflorescences of tiny flower heads with creamy white disci florets but no ray florets.