Anisocoma acaulis

Scale bud

Family: Asteraceae · Type: annual · Native

Scale bud is a California native annual found in southern Sierra Nevada, Tehachapi, San Joaquin Valley, southern Coast Ranges, Transverse Ranges, Peninsular Ranges, Great Basin, and Desert regions in sandy washes and dry slopes at elevations of 100 to 2,600 meters. Flowering from March to June, this plant produces cream to bright yellow flowers in solitary heads with wide papery-transparent phyllary margins often marked with red tips. Growing with scapose habit and milky sap, it develops slender stems reaching 20 centimeters tall. Its basal leaves are 3 to 5 centimeters long with pinnately lobed structure, each lobe toothed and slightly hairy. The fruit is characterized by white plumose bristles arranged asymmetrically along its surface.

Habitat: Sandy washes, dry slopes

Bloom period: Mar-Jun

Elevation: 100-2600 m

Bioregions: s SN, Teh, SnJV, SCoR, TR, PR, GB, D

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