Description
This is an annual herb producing mainly erect stems up to about 15 centimeters tall. The small leaves are often divided into lobes or toothed, the largest no more than 4 centimeters long. The plant is hairy in texture and varies in color from grayish green to reddish or brown.
The flower heads appear singly at the tips of stem branches, each lined with purplish, glandular phyllaries. The head is discoid, containing no ray florets but many funnel-shaped disc florets with long, narrow lobes. These disc florets are usually yellow, but some plants bear white or pink colouration in certain populations. The corolla is generally yellow in most of the disc florets, one diagnostic separating other white and pink species such as L. nemaclada, but some outer florets may have a corolla that is dark purple, especially in white or pink flowering specimens.
The fruit is an achene with a whitish pappus of bristles.
Coreopsis calliopsidea is a species of flowering plant in the daisy family known by the common name leafstem tickseed. It is endemic to California. The plant grows in some of the southern coastal mountain ranges and Transverse Ranges and the Mojave Desert from Alameda and Inyo Counties south to Riverside County.
Cacaliopsis is a monotypic genus of flowering plants in the aster family, Asteraceae, containing the single species Cacaliopsis nardosmia. It is known by the common name silvercrown. It is native to western North America, where it is distributed from southern British Columbia to northern California.
Chaenactis artemisiifolia, with the common name white pincushion, is a species of flowering plant in the daisy family. It is native to the coastal Peninsular Ranges of Southern California and Baja California, in the chaparral and woodlands.
Calycadenia multiglandulosa is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae, known by the common names sticky calycadenia and sticky western rosinweed. It is endemic to California, where it is a common in the Coast Ranges and in the Sierra Nevada Foothills from Shasta County to Kern County.
Calycadenia villosa is an uncommon species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common name dwarf western rosinweed. It is endemic to central California, where it is known from a limited distribution in the Central Coast Ranges in Monterey County and San Luis Obispo County, with a few populations in Santa Barbara and western Fresno Counties. There are perhaps 16 occurrences.
Chaenactis suffrutescens is a species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common name Shasta chaenactis.
Lessingia arachnoidea is a rare species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common name Crystal Springs lessingia. It is endemic to California, where it is known from a few occurrences in the vicinity of Crystal Springs Reservoir on the San Francisco Peninsula and southward to serpentine soil in Woodside. It may also exist in Sonoma County to the north. The plant grows in chaparral, scrub, grasslands and other local plant communities, on serpentine soils.
Corethrogyne filaginifolia is a species of flowering plant in the daisy family known by the common names common sandaster and California aster.
Lessingia germanorum is a rare species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common name San Francisco lessingia. It is endemic to California, where it is known from four populations in the Presidio of San Francisco and one occurrence on San Bruno Mountain south of San Francisco. It is a state and federally listed endangered species. The already rare plant is endangered by many processes, including invasive species, development, sand mining, off-road vehicles and bulldozers, habitat fragmentation, trampling, and pollution, as well as stochastic events.
Lessingia hololeuca is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common name woollyhead lessingia.
Lessingia lemmonii is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common name Lemmon's lessingia. It is native to the western United States around the intersection of Nevada, Arizona, and California, where it grows in desert and other habitat with sandy soils. This is an annual herb producing gray-green woolly stems in a low clump just a few centimeters high to a relatively erect 40 centimeters tall. The leaves are narrow and small, under 2 centimeters long, with much larger leaves appearing around the base of the young plant and withering away early. The flower heads appear singly or in open arrays. Each head has a bell- to bullet-shaped involucre lined with hairy to woolly phyllaries. The head is discoid, containing no ray florets but many funnel-shaped yellow disc florets with long lobes. The florets often have white markings in the throats. The fruit is an achene with a whitish or brownish pappus of bristles.
Lessingia leptoclada is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common name Sierra lessingia. It is endemic to the Sierra Nevada of California, where it is known from several types of local habitat. This is a slender annual herb growing erect and varying in size from just a few centimeters to nearly a meter tall, with long, spreading branches. It is very glandular and often hairy or woolly in texture. The upper leaves are up to 5 centimeters long, narrow and sometimes toothed or lobed; the lower leaves are longer and wither early. The flower heads appear singly or in small clusters. Each head is lined with woolly phyllaries. The head is discoid, containing no ray florets but many funnel-shaped pinkish, lavender, or light bluish-purple disc florets with large lobes. The fruit is an achene with a whitish pappus of bristles.
Lessingia micradenia is a rare species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common name Mt. Tamalpais lessingia. It is endemic to the San Francisco Bay Area of California, where it occurs in areas with serpentine soils. The species is divided into two rare varieties, each with a limited occurrence on opposite sides of the Bay Area. Lessingia micradenia var. glabrata is found in several locations across Santa Clara County south of San Jose, while var. micradenia is known only from a few spots around Mount Tamalpais in Marin County.
Lessingia nemaclada is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common name slenderstem lessingia. It is endemic to California, where it is widespread across the northern parts of the Central Valley and adjacent foothills and mountains, including the Sierra Nevada foothills and the mountains of the San Francisco Bay Area. It grows in a variety of habitats. This annual herb is quite variable in appearance. It may be petite and just a few centimeters tall, or over half a meter in erect height with many spreading branches. It is generally glandular, with knobby glands most easily seen on the leaves, and often hairy to woolly. The upper leaves are small and unlobed, and the lower leaves are larger and sometimes lobed or toothed but wither early. The flower heads appear singly or in small clusters. Each head is lined with hairless, glandular phyllaries. The head is discoid, containing no ray florets and just a few pale purple, pinkish, or nearly white funnel-shaped disc florets with narrow lobes. The fruit is an achene with a whitish pappus of bristles which may be fused into points.
Lessingia virgata is a species of flowering plant in the family Asteraceae known by the common name wand lessingia. It is endemic to California, where it is known from the eastern side of the Central Valley and adjacent Sierra Nevada foothills. It is a woolly, glandular annual herb growing up to about 60 centimeters tall with slender, spreading branches. The upper leaves are no more than a centimeter long, while the lower ones are longer and sometimes divided into lobes or teeth. The flower heads appear singly in leaf axils, each lined with purple-tipped, glandular, woolly phyllaries. The head is discoid, containing no ray florets but a few tubular light lavender to nearly white disc florets with long, narrow lobes. The fruit is an achene with a whitish pappus on top.
Leptosiphon montanus is a species of flowering plant in the phlox family known by the common name mustang clover.
Nemacladus interior is a species of flowering plant in the bellflower family known by the common name Sierra threadplant. It is native to the Sierra Nevada of California, and it is known from Oregon as well. It grows in mountain forest habitat. It is an annual herb producing a stiff upright purple-brown stem up to about 25 centimeters tall. Small toothed oval leaves 1 to 2 centimeters long occur at the base of the plant. The inflorescence is a zigzagging series of branches bearing occasional flowers on thin pedicels. There is a single tiny bract at the base of each pedicel. The flower is a few millimeters long. It has five triangular sepals and five corolla lobes, three lobes on the upper lip and two on the lower. The corolla is white to pale purple or pink with a thin red band and yellow spot at the base of each lobe.
Packera bolanderi is a species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common names Bolander's ragwort and seacoast ragwort. It is native to the west coast of the United States from Washington to northern California, where it grows in wet coastal forests and woodlands. There are two varieties of the species which differ slightly in morphology and habitat occupied; these varieties have been considered separate species by some authors. The var. bolanderi has thicker leaves, occurs farther south, and occupies more open types of habitat, than does var. harfordii. This plant in general is a perennial herb producing one to three stems up to half a meter tall. The basal leaves have blades up to 12 centimeters long which are divided into several lobes and borne on long, thin petioles. Leaves growing farther up the stem are smaller and have more lobes on their blades. The inflorescence contains several flower heads, each lined with dark green phyllaries. The head contains many golden yellow disc florets and generally either 8 or 13 yellow ray florets each over a centimeter long. The fruit is an achene tipped with a pappus of bristles.
Packera breweri is a species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common name Brewer's ragwort. It is endemic to central California, where it occurs in the woodlands and grasslands of the Central Coast Ranges. They are more frequently found in mid-southern counties of California near the coast, such as Kern or Monterey.
Packera ganderi is a rare species of flowering plant in the aster family known by the common name Gander's ragwort. It is endemic to southern California, where it is known from a few occurrences in San Diego and Riverside Counties.
