It can dominate in dry habitats including desert chaparral and semi-desert chaparral. Its drought tolerance is inferred from its dry-site habitat.

One author described running roots with sprouts as far as 1.5 m from the parent plant, and the hybrid California Glory has shallow, wide-spreading roots. In the related Pine Hill flannelbush, sprouts grew from shallow roots less than 30 cm deep.

Its dormant seeds require scarification, likely by fire. In the related Pine Hill flannelbush, over 80% of seeds remained viable after 5.75 years buried under litter.

In the related Pine Hill flannelbush, seeds were often found on ant middens within 8 m of parent plants, and the farthest was 12 m from the parent plant. They do not have propagules designed for long-distance dispersal.

Its seedlings establish mainly in open postfire environments. However, it also occurs in the understory of pinyon-juniper woodlands, but is most abundant during the first 80 years after fire.

It persists into late-successional chaparral (about 100 years) but is rarely seen in late succession in singleleaf pinyon woodlands, so late-stage persistence occurs in chaparral but rarely in pinyon woodlands.

Fire also appears to stimulate germination of its soil-stored seeds, and seedlings establish soon after fire. It is classified as a facultative seeder and fire-recruiter.

Observations of postfire seedling establishment and heat treatment experiments suggest that fire scarifies California flannelbush seed and stimulates germination.

The source notes only that, in general, spring fires may be more likely than summer or fall fires to harm underground structures and the soil seed bank.

Crown fires are more likely to occur where it forms dense thickets with other highly flammable shrubs such as in dry-mesic chaparral communities. However, flammability of individual plants is not described.

Top-killed plants sprout and seedlings establish soon after fire, and it may form local thickets in early postfire succession.

Given that California flannelbush is typically most abundant in early postfire environments, populations may decrease with fire exclusion. However, repeated short interval fires may reduce its occurrence in favor of herbaceous species including nonnative annuals.

However, in fall or winter, some Sierra Nevada tribes burned individual shrubs or sites to induce rapid growth.

It also occurs in pinyon-juniper woodlands, where fires are less frequent and succession to woodlands is slow, over about 100 to 150 years.

This is consistent with fire regime group 4.

It may carry surface or crown fires within stands but is not described as altering historical fuel characteristics.