Brickellia californica
“California Brickelbush”

This California native shrub may not be the handsomest guy on the block - but when it blooms - beware! From a great distance, you will be drawn by the irresistible, powerful perfume! This wonderful fragrance lasts for two weeks & it’s one of those mysterious plant scents that can be smelled only at a distance - you get up close to the flowers & it’s barely noticeable (someone should write a paper on that). “Brickelbush” is a common shrub of dry, rocky slopes & washes in our chaparral & coastal-sage-scrub areas below 8000 ft. Base branching to 4’ tall & wide, with triangular gray-green leaves, it blooms Aug. thru Oct. The yellowish-green flowers are pendulous & held in little bunches. Quail like the seeds that follow. Deciduous. Water once a week or so the first year, very little thereafter. Tolerates sand & clay.

Annie