Coyote Brush

🌿 California native

Quick facts

• Habitat: Coastal Sage Scrub, coastal bluffs, disturbed slopes
• Form / size: Evergreen shrub, 2–8 ft (prostrate to upright)
• Sun: Full sun · Water: Low
• Blooms: Fall · Pollinator value: High (a key late-season nectar source)

Description

A tough evergreen with small, wedge-shaped, coarsely toothed bright-green leaves that stay green through drought. It’s dioecious (separate male and female plants); in fall, females turn fluffy white with cottony seed, males more yellowish with pollen. Comes in upright shrub forms and low, ground-hugging coastal forms (‘Pigeon Point’ / ‘Twin Peaks’ in the trade).

Ecological role

Coyote Brush is a late-season nectar and pollen source, blooming September through December when few other plants are flowering in coastal sage scrub. Its fall flowers feed native bees, butterflies, and beneficial insects that depend on this shrub to fuel their bodies before winter. Female plants produce cottony seed in fall, adding another resource layer to the habitat. In disturbed coastal areas, coyote brush is often a pioneer species, one of the first to reclaim cleared or burnt ground, establishing the low shrub cover that shapes coastal sage scrub’s characteristic look and provides shelter for small animals.

Habitat & range

Coastal bluffs, scrub, and disturbed slopes throughout cismontane California — often a pioneer that recolonizes cleared ground.

In the garden

A bombproof evergreen groundcover or screen (pick prostrate vs. upright forms). Full sun, low water, tolerates poor soil. One of the best late-season insectary plants for the garden.

Propagation

Easy from seed and cuttings (named groundcover forms are cutting-grown).

Where to see it near you

• iNaturalist — observed in Orange County
• Coastal bluffs and recovering disturbed ground.

Problems

Essentially trouble-free; female plants drop cottony seed (some find it messy).

Sources

• Calscape · iNaturalist · Wikipedia