Ancistrocarphus filagineus

Woolly fishhooks, Woolly Fishhooks

Family: Asteraceae · Type: annual · Native

Woolly fishhooks is a California native annual herb found in the California Floristic Province (excluding northern coastal, central coastal, and Channel Islands), and western Mojave Desert at elevations of 60 to 1,900 meters in bare or grassy sites, often on serpentine or clay soils, vernally moist areas, and disturbed landscapes like road beds and burns. Flowering from March to June, this plant produces small whitish flower heads 3.5 to 8 millimeters long with distinctive ovate wings on pistillate paleae. Growing with delicate stems and compact growth, it reaches heights of approximately 10 to 20 centimeters. Its leaves are linear-oblanceolate to elliptic, measuring 8 to 16 millimeters long and 2 to 3 millimeters wide, with a narrow base and slightly acuminate tip. The plant's tiny disk flowers feature (4)5(6) nearly equal radial corolla lobes, creating a distinctive and intricate floral structure.

Habitat: Bare or grassy, often serpentine or clay, drainages, road beds, burns, vernally moist sites

Bloom period: Mar-Jun

Elevation: 60-1900(2100) m

Bioregions: CA-FP (exc NCo, CCo, ChI), MP (exc Wrn), w DMoj (exc DMtns)

Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.