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| ## flannelbush {#flannelbush .Title-Header}                           |
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| *Fremontodendron californicum* (Torr.) Coville                        |
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| Plant Symbol = FRCA6                                                  |
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# *Contributed By: USDA NRCS National Plant Data Center & East Bay Regional Parks Botanic Garden*

#### Alternate Names

Fremontia

Uses

*Ethnobotanic*: The bark is cut at one end of the branches and peeled
off in long strips. These are washed and rubbed between the hands. Three
strands are rolled together on the upper thigh to make cordage a type of
string or rope that was made into a pack strap and tumpline by the
Kawaiisu. The wood was also sometimes substituted for willow in the
making of Kawaiisu baby cradles. The inner bark was soaked in water and
the infusion drank as a physic by the Kawaiisu. Many other California
tribes utilized the bark for cordage including the Owens Valley Paiute,
Sierra Miwok, Western Mono, and Tubatulabal. The Sierra Miwok made a
hoop of the bark wrapped with buckskin for the hoop and pole game. The
Tubatulabal used rope made of flannelbush to lash bundles of tules
together for a raft, to tie up crooks on pinyon staves, to bundle
firewood into a load, and for two ends of a pack strap. The Western Mono
used the young split branches to tie together their looped stirring
sticks and to assemble different types of cone-shaped storage bins for
acorns and manzanita berries.

#### Status

Please consult the PLANTS Web site and your State Department of Natural
Resources for this plant's current status, such as, state noxious
status, and wetland indicator values.

#### Description

*General*: Sterculia Family (Sterculiaceae). Named after the explorer
John C. Fremont, this shrub or small tree reaches 3-8 m in height. The
twigs have dense stellate hairs. The shrub has ovate, soft to leathery
leaves with 3 main lobes with hairs on the upper and lower surfaces. The
spectacular solitary flowers are 35-60 mm wide with no petals and
subtended by 3 showy yellow, sepal-like bracts. The ovoid fruit is
chambered.![](media/image2.png){width="3.09375in"
height="1.8520833333333333in"}

#### Distribution

For current distribution, please consult the Plant Profile page for this
species on the PLANTS Web site. The shrub is found from 400-2200 m in
chaparral, oak woodland, and pine forests in the California Floristic
Province, Arizona, and down to Baja California.

#### Establishment

The plants grow in extremely rocky areas and are often found in crevices
of rocks. In southern California, these plants are found in areas
containing very gritty soil and low rainfall. Buy small seedlings and
plant them in the fall in a pile of roadfill with no clay (mostly gravel
and rock and very little soil). Plant the seedlings in mounds in full
sun. Plant in shallow holes and make sure that no soil covers the top of
the ball of soil that contains the seedlings. Cover the soil with gravel
and rock, then water. Keep the mound moist until new growth is several
inches long (not over 4 inches), then stop watering. Water at the edge
of the mound making sure that the water doesn\'t get within fifteen
inches of the trunk of the plant. Leave the shrub alone from then on and
use no fertilizer.

#### Management 

You can prune this shrub at any time of the year. Tribes in the Sierra
Nevada burned individual shrubs or areas where the shrubs grew in the
fall or winter to induce rapid elongation of young epicormic branches
which were harvested and split for cordage.

#### Cultivars, Improved and Selected Materials (and area of origin)

Contact your local Natural Resources Conservation Service (formerly Soil
Conservation Service) office for more information. Look in the phone
book under "United States Government." The Natural Resources
Conservation Service will be listed under the subheading "Department of
Agriculture."

#### References

Barrett, S.A. & E.W. Gifford 1933. *Miwok material culture*. Bulletin of
the Public Museum of the City of Milwaukee 2(4):117-376.

Steward, J.H. 1933. *Ethnography of the Owens Valley Paiute*. University
of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology
33(5):423-438.

USDA, NRCS 1999. *The PLANTS database*. National Plant Data Center,
Baton Rouge, Louisiana. \<http://plants.usda.gov\>. Version: 990412.

Voegelin, E.W. 1938. *Tubatulabal ethnography*. Anthropological Records
2(1):1-84.

Whetstone, R.D. & T.A. Atkinson 1993. *Sterculiaceae*. Pages 1077-1078
IN: *The Jepson manual: Higher plants of California*. J.C. Hickman
(ed.). University of California Press, Berkeley, California.

Zigmond, M.L. 1981. *Kawaiisu ethnobotany*. University of Utah Press.
Salt Lake City, Utah.

#### Prepared By & Species Coordinator

*M. Kat Anderson*

USDA, NRCS, National Plant Data Center

c/o Environmental Horticulture Department, University of California,
Davis, California

*Wayne Roderick*

Former Director of the East Bay Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Berkeley,
California

Edited: 05dec00 jsp; 19may03 ahv; 07jun06 jsp

For more information about this and other plants, please contact your
local NRCS field office or Conservation District, and visit the PLANTS
Web site\<[http://plants.usda.gov](http://plants.usda.gov/)\> or the
Plant Materials Program Web site
\<[http://Plant-Materials.nrcs.usda.gov](http://Plant-Materials.nrcs.usda.gov/)\>

*The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) prohibits discrimination in
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orientation, and marital or family status. (Not all prohibited bases
apply to all programs.) Persons with disabilities who require
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large print, audiotape, etc.) should contact USDA\'s [TARGET
Center](http://www.usda.gov/oo/target.htm) at 202-720-2600 (voice and
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*To file a complaint of discrimination write USDA, Director, Office of
Civil Rights, Room 326-W, Whitten Building, 14th and Independence
Avenue, SW, Washington, DC 20250-9410 or call 202-720-5964 (voice or
TDD). USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.*

*Read about [Civil Rights at the Natural Resources Convervation
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