Brickellia californica

California brickellbush, California Brickellbush

Family: Asteraceae · Type: shrub · Native

California brickellbush is a native shrub found in northwestern California, the high Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, San Joaquin Valley, central western California, southwestern California, and desert regions in dry, rocky hillsides, canyons, and sea bluffs at elevations up to 2,700 meters. Flowering from July to December, this plant produces pale yellow-green flowers in heads 7 to 12 millimeters long arranged in leafy panicle-like clusters. Growing with branched stems 50 to 200 centimeters tall that are short-hairy and glandular, it forms a multi-stemmed shrub from near the base. Its alternate leaves are ovate to deltate, 10 to 100 millimeters long, with crenate to serrate edges and a cordate to truncate base, becoming less hairy with age. The fruit is 2.5 to 3.5 millimeters long with 24 to 30 pappus bristles.

Habitat: Dry, rocky hillsides, canyons, sea bluffs

Bloom period: Jul-Dec

Elevation: < 2700 m

Bioregions: NW, CaRF, SN, SnJV, CW, SW, D

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