Centromadia fitchii

Spikeweed

Family: Asteraceae · Type: perennial · Native

Spikeweed is a California native perennial found in the eastern Klamath Ranges, northern Coast Ranges, Cascade Range, northern Sierra Nevada foothills, Great Valley, San Francisco Bay Area, southern Coast Ranges, and northern Channel Islands in grasslands, alkaline flats, vernal pools, and woodlands at elevations below 1,000 meters. Flowering from May to November, this plant produces yellow flowers with dark purple to red disk anthers in compact heads. Growing with branching stems 20 to 50 centimeters tall, it develops dense clusters of soft to coarse hairy stems with yellow, brown, or black glandular hairs. Its leaves are deeply hairy with stalked glands, creating a distinctively textured appearance across the plant. The fruit develops with a pappus of 8 to 12 narrow, oblanceolate scales that aid in seed dispersal.

Habitat: Grassland, +- alkaline flats, vernal pools, woodland, disturbed sites, sometimes on serpentine

Bloom period: May-Nov

Elevation: < 1000 m

Bioregions: e KR, NCoRO, NCoRI, CaR, n&ampc SNF, GV, SnFrB, SCoR, n ChI (Santa Cruz Island, alien), n SnBr

California counties: Glenn, Santa Barbara, Tehama, Calaveras, Colusa, Kern, Stanislaus, Tuolumne, Yolo, Alameda, Amador, Butte, Contra Costa, El Dorado, Fresno, Lake, Madera, Marin, Mariposa, Mendocino, Merced, Monterey, Napa, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, San Bernardino, San Joaquin, San Luis Obispo, Santa Clara, Shasta, Siskiyou, Solano, Sonoma, Sutter, Yuba, San Diego, Humboldt, San Benito, Tulare, Los Angeles, Santa Cruz, Orange

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