Vasey's Rabbitbrush

Shrubs, 10–30 cm; caudices woody, very branched, bark tan to dark gray, fibrous with age. Stems ascending, green becoming tan, glabrous or puberulent, resin-dotted to resinous. Leaves ascending to spreading; sessile; blades with faint midnerves, linear to oblanceolate, 10–40 × 1–2.5 mm, flat or sulcate, usually not twisted, margins eciliate or sparsely puberulent, apices acute to apiculate, faces usually glabrous, sometimes puberulent, usually gland-dotted, resinous. Heads in dense cymiform arrays (to 5 cm wide), sometimes overtopped by distal leaves. Involucres cylindric to obconic, (5–)6–8 × 2–4 mm. Phyllaries 12–18 in 3–4 series, in weak vertical ranks, mostly tan, greenish apically, midnerves evident and ± expanded distally, ovate to elliptic, unequal, 1.5–7 × 1–1.8 mm, chartaceous, weakly keeled, margins scarious, ciliate to lacerate, apices acute to obtuse-rounded, faces glabrous or gland-dotted. Disc florets 5–7; corollas 4.5–6.5 mm, lobes 1.2–1.7 mm; style branches 2.5–3.8 mm, appendages 0.8–1.2 mm. Cypselae reddish brown, cylindric to turbinate, 4–5 mm, 5–10-nerved, faces glabrous; pappi tan (fine), 3.5–5 mm. 2n = 18.

Bigelowia vaseyi A. Gray, Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts 12: 58. 1876

Chrysothamnus vaseyi, called Vasey's rabbitbrush, is a North American species of flowering plants in the tribe Astereae within the family Asteraceae. It has been found in Utah, Colorado, northern New Mexico, southern Wyoming, northern Arizona (Navajo County) and eastern Nevada (White Pine County).

Chrysothamnus vaseyi is a branching shrub up to 30 cm (12 inches) tall with tan or gray bark, becoming flaky as it gets old. It has many small, yellow flower heads clumped into dense arrays. The species grows in open woodlands alongside pine and oak.