Chaenactis glabriuscula var. glabriuscula

Common yellow chaenactis

Family: Asteraceae · Type: annual · Native

Common yellow chaenactis is a California native annual found in the North Coast Ranges, Sierra Nevada, Central Valley, Central Western California, and southwestern deserts in open sandy slopes, chaparral, and woodland openings at elevations of 100 to 2,300 meters. Flowering from February to July, this plant produces yellow flowers in heads 2 to 20 per stem, arranged with peduncles 1 to 4 centimeters long. Growing 10 to 60 centimeters tall with generally 1 to 5 erect to ascending stems that branch both proximally and distally, it has a distinctive growth habit with grayish cobwebby hairs. Its leaves are 3 to 8 centimeters long, with 2 to 7 pairs of lobes that have flat, curled, twisted, or cylindric tips, creating a delicate and intricate foliage pattern. The fruit is 3 to 5.5 millimeters long, with inner pappus scales up to 4 millimeters in length.

Habitat: Open sandy slopes, openings in chaparral, woodland

Bloom period: Feb-Jul

Elevation: 100-2300 m

Bioregions: NCoRI, SN (exc e SNH), GV, CW (exc CCo), SW (exc s ChI), sw edge D (exc DMtns)

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