Cacaliopsis nardosmia

Cut leaf cacaliopsis

Family: Asteraceae · Type: perennial · Native

Cut leaf cacaliopsis is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges and northern Coast Ranges in meadows and open forests, sometimes on serpentine substrate, at elevations of 200 to 2,150 meters. Flowering from April to July, this plant produces yellow flowers in heads 12 to 16 millimeters long, arranged in clusters of 3 to 11. Growing with erect stems 15 to 90 centimeters tall emerging from a rhizome, it forms distinctive foliage with widely kidney-shaped leaves that are palmately lobed and deeply divided. Its leaves measure 7 to 35 centimeters long, with fuzzy white undersides and relatively smooth upper surfaces, featuring a long petiole of 7 to 30 centimeters. The fruit is a brown cylindrical structure 6 to 8.5 millimeters long, topped with a white pappus of fine, minutely barbed bristles.

Habitat: Meadows, open forest, sometimes serpentine

Bloom period: Apr-Jul

Elevation: 200-2150 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoR

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