When does Rubber Rabbitbrush bloom in Utah?

Most often in September. Across 316 dated, research-grade observations of Ericameria nauseosa in Utah, the flowering season runs roughly July to October.

Peak September In flower 316 Examined 632 State Utah

Flowering 316 in flower of 632 examined

11%

86%

90%

91%

88%

35%

17%

Proportion of examined Ericameria nauseosa in Utah in flower, by month
Month	In flower	Examined	Share	95% interval
Jan	1	62	2%	0% to 9%
Feb	1	59	2%	0% to 9%
Mar	1	30	3%	1% to 17%
Apr	0	19	0%	0% to 17%
May	0	4	too few examined
Jun	1	9	11%	2% to 44%
Jul	6	7	86%	49% to 97%
Aug	28	31	90%	75% to 97%
Sep	93	102	91%	84% to 95%
Oct	138	157	88%	82% to 92%
Nov	41	116	35%	27% to 44%
Dec	6	36	17%	8% to 32%

Peak flowering in Sep. Each bar is the share of Ericameria nauseosa in Utah observations in which someone actually recorded the reproductive state and found the plant in flower, not the raw number of flowering records. That distinction matters: people observe plants far more in spring than in winter, so a bare count of flowering records partly measures when people go outside. Dividing by the number examined removes that. 316 of 632 examined observations were in flower, every one of them research grade. The whisker on each bar is a 95% Wilson interval. One month has fewer than 5 examined observations, so no proportion is drawn for it. This is still a global aggregate and not a forecast for your garden: the same species flowers on different dates in different hemispheres. Where a species has fewer than 30 flowering records we do not draw this chart at all. Computed from 10.15468/dl.wt38fd.

What this is, and what it is not

This is a record of when people in Utah found Ericameria nauseosa in flower, not a forecast. It is computed only from observations made in Utah, so it is not the species’ global average dragged onto a map: the same plant flowers on different dates in different places, and that is the entire point of the page.

It will not tell you what your particular plant will do this year. Bloom time moves with the season, with altitude, and with the weather, and a warm February pulls everything forward. We publish the distribution and the sample size, and we refuse to draw a month that too few people examined.

The plant

Ericameria nauseosa

Rubber Rabbitbrush

Sourcesevery claim on this page

GBIF (iNaturalist Research-grade Observations). Dated flowering annotations in Utah. Every record achieved iNaturalist quality grade Research, which is applied upstream at export. 10.15468/dl.wt38fd. Retrieved 2026-07-14.
World Flora Online Plant List. The accepted name. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.