Benitoa occidentalis

Benitoa

Family: Asteraceae · Type: annual · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 4.3

Benitoa is a native annual herb found in southwestern central California in Fresno, Monterey, and San Benito counties, occurring in grasslands and foothill woodlands at elevations of 350 to 1,100 meters. Flowering from June to November, this plant produces yellow flowers with occasional red tints, forming radiate heads in open panicle-like clusters up to 10 millimeters long. Growing with erect, often stout stems 10 to 150 centimeters tall that are green and age to red, it has a strongly scented and densely glandular-hairy appearance. Its alternate leaves are sessile and variable, ranging from linear to lance-linear or oblanceolate, often curved and measuring 0.5 to 12 centimeters long, with entire or toothed margins. The fruit is 3 to 4 millimeters long, strigose, and mottled purple-brown with a deciduous pappus of 2 to 8 slender white bristles.

Habitat: Grassland, foothill woodland, vertic clay, occasionally serpentine

Bloom period: Jun-Nov

Elevation: 350-1100 m

Bioregions: SCoRI (w Fresno, se Monterey, se San Benito cos.).

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