Chaenactis nevadensis

Sierra pincushion, Sierra Pincushion

Family: Asteraceae · Type: perennial · Native

Sierra pincushion is a California native perennial found in southern Klamath Ranges (Bully Choop Mountain), southern Cascade Range (Lassen Park area), and northern Sierra Nevada at elevations of 1,900 to 3,200 meters in loose, volcanic or ultramafic sand, gravel, and scree. Flowering from July to September, this plant produces white to pale pink flowers in small, scapose heads approximately 9 to 12 millimeters long. Growing in dense, matted clumps 2 to 10 centimeters tall with minimal branching, it has woolly white proximal hairs and a low, compact form. Its basal leaves are 2.5 to 5 centimeters long, with ovate to deltate blades that are 1- to 2-pinnately lobed and gland-pitted beneath the hairs. The fruit is 5.5 to 7.5 millimeters long with a pappus of 10 to 16 scales in 3 to 4 nearly equal series.

Habitat: Loose, generally volcanic or ultramafic sand, gravel, scree

Bloom period: Jul-Sep

Elevation: 1900-3200 m

Bioregions: s KR (Bully Choop Mtn), s CaRH (Lassen Park area), n SNH

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