| Lepidospartum squamatum | |
|---|---|
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Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Plantae |
| Clade: | Tracheophytes |
| Clade: | Angiosperms |
| Clade: | Eudicots |
| Clade: | Asterids |
| Order: | Asterales |
| Family: | Asteraceae |
| Genus: | Lepidospartum |
| Species: | L. squamatum |
| Binomial name | |
| Lepidospartum squamatum | |
Lepidospartum squamatum is a species of flowering shrub in the daisy family known by the common names California broomsage and scale broom.
Lepidospartum squamatum is native to the mountains, valleys, and deserts of central and southern California, and Baja California. It grows in sandy, gravelly soils in a number of habitat types, especially dry alluvial habitat such as arroyos. [1] It is considered an indicator species for the alluvial scrub habitat type in this region. [1] [2] It is also commonly found in neighboring Arizona. [3]
Lepidospartum squamatum is a large shrub often exceeding two meters in height which takes a spreading, rounded form, its branches are coated in woolly fibers and stubby leaves no more than 3 millimeters long. These drought adaptations support flowering during hot summers when many plants are dormant, making it an important resource for pollinators. [4]
The inflorescence is a single flower head or small cluster of up to 5 heads at the ends of branches. The heads are discoid, bearing many yellow tubular disc florets and no ray florets. The fruit is a narrow achene a few millimeters long with a dull white to light brown pappus on top. While in bloom, scale broom will attract a wide variety of pollinators, including bees, butterflies, moths, and tarantula hawk wasps.
As the fruits mature and the flower parts fall away the inflorescence takes on a cottony look due to all the pappi.
Lepidospartum latisquamum is a species of flowering shrub in the daisy family known by the common name Nevada broomsage. It is native to the southwestern United States from California to Utah, where it grows in woodland and scrub. This is a broomlike shrub growing ribbed stems upright to form a narrow, erect profile. The ridges of the stem are hairless, while the grooves between them are coated in grayish woolly hairs. The leaves are needlelike to thready, 2 to 3 centimeters long and mostly hairless. The inflorescence is a loose cluster of 3 to 5 flower heads. Each head has a nearly cylindrical base of flat, wide phyllaries. It is discoid, containing about five yellow disc florets and no ray florets. The fruit is a hairy, ridged achene with a pappus of long bristles.
Brickellia californica, known by the common name California brickellbush, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae.
Brickellia nevinii is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common name Nevin's brickellbush. It is native to southern California and Nevada, where it is an uncommon resident of desert and mountain scrub plant communities.
Artemisia spinescens is a North American species of sagebrush in the sunflower family, known by the common name budsage.
Encelia actoni, also known by the common names Acton brittlebush and Acton encelia, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae.
Ericameria fasciculata is a rare species of flowering shrub in the family Asteraceae known by the common name Eastwood's goldenbush. It is endemic to northern California, where it is known from fewer than twenty locations. Many sources described it as found only in Monterey County, but the Calflora database maintained by the University of California reports additional collections from nearby Santa Cruz and Santa Clara Counties. These collections are, however, from inhabited regions and might represent either introductions or cultivated specimens.
Constancea is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae containing the single species Constancea nevinii, which is known by the common name Nevin's woolly sunflower. It is endemic to three of the Channel Islands of California, where it grows in coastal scrub habitat. This is a small shrub or subshrub generally growing up to one or 1.5 meters tall, and taller when an erect form, with a branching, woolly stem. The whitish, woolly oval leaves may be up to 20 centimeters long and are divided into many narrow lobes with edges curled under. The inflorescence is a cluster of 10 to 50 or more small flower heads, each on a short peduncle. The flower head has a center of hairy, glandular, star-shaped yellow disc florets and a fringe of four to nine yellow ray florets, each about 2 millimeters long. The fruit is an achene a few millimeters long with a small pappus at the tip.
Hesperevax acaulis is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common name stemless dwarf cudweed. It is native to California and Oregon where it grows in many types of mountain, valley, and coastal habitats, including areas recently affected by wildfire. This petite woolly annual forms a small bunch on the ground. Despite its common name it sometimes has a stem a few centimeters long. The wool-coated leaves appear in pairs or clusters, each leaf measuring a few millimeters to three centimeters long. In the center of the leaf array is the inflorescence, which is a single flower head or tightly packed cluster of several heads, each just a few millimeters wide. The flower head contains several tiny disc florets.
Microseris paludosa is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common names marsh silverpuffs and marsh microseris. It is endemic to California, where it has a scattered distribution between southern Mendocino and northern San Luis Obispo Counties, mainly near the coast. Its habitat includes coastal scrub and grassland and coniferous forest.
Monolopia lanceolata, the hillside daisy or common monolopia, is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is endemic to the southern half of California, where it grows in many types of habitat, including coastal and valley grassland, chaparral, woodland, and desert.
Pleurocoronis pluriseta is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common name bush arrowleaf. It is native to the southwestern United States and northern Mexico, where it grows in desert scrub and similar habitat. This is a clumpy or bushy subshrub reaching up to about half a meter in maximum height with many slender branches. The distinctive leaves are several centimeters in length and are mostly petiole; there is generally a toothed diamond- or arrowhead-shaped blade no more than one centimeter long at the very tip. The inflorescence is made up of one or two flower heads, sometimes more. Each flower head is somewhat cylindrical or bullet-shaped, measuring up to about a centimeter long. The head is discoid, containing only disc florets and no ray florets. It is lined with a series of many phyllaries coated thinly in glandular hairs and often streaked with purple-red coloration. The tips of the outer phyllaries curve outward. The fruit is a hairy, ribbed achene a few millimeters long with a pappus of bristles and scales on its tip.
Packera bernardina is a rare species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common name San Bernardino ragwort.
Bahiopsis laciniata is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common names San Diego County sunflower, San Diego viguiera and tornleaf goldeneye. It is native to the deserts and dry mountain slopes of northwestern Mexico, its distribution extending north as far as Ventura County, California.
Deinandra conjugens is a rare species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common names Otay tarplant and Otay tarweed. It is native to a small section of far northern Baja California in Mexico, its range extending north into San Diego County, California, in the United States. One isolated population has been reported from the hills east of Cayucos in San Luis Obispo County.
Acamptopappus sphaerocephalus is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common name rayless goldenhead. It is native to the southwestern United States, where it occurs in southern California, southern Nevada, southern Utah, and Arizona.
Chrysothamnus molestus is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common names Arizona rabbitbrush, Tusayan rabbitbrush, disturbed rabbitbrush, and stickyfruit low rabbitbrush. It is endemic to the State of Arizona in the southwestern United States, where it is known from Coconino, Apache, and Navajo Counties.
Deinandra minthornii — — is a rare California species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common name Santa Susana tarplant, or Santa Susana tarweed. It is listed as a rare species by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and on the California Native Plant Society Inventory of Rare and Endangered Plants of California.
Brachyglottis bidwillii is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae. It is endemic to New Zealand.
Ericameria parryi is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common name Parry's rabbitbrush. It is native to much of the western United States.
Hymenothrix dissecta is a North American species of flowering plants in the family Asteraceae known by the common names yellow ragweed and ragleaf bahia. It is native to the western United States as far north as the Black Hills of South Dakota and Wyoming, as well as in northern Mexico.
Media related to Lepidospartum squamatum at Wikimedia Commons