Chaenactis suffrutescens

Shasta chaenactis; shasta pincushion, Shasta Chaenactis; Shasta Pincushion

Family: Asteraceae · Type: shrub · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 1B.3

Shasta chaenactis is a rare California native shrub ranked 1B.3 by CNPS, found in the eastern Klamath Ranges on unstable, serpentine soils and rocky drainages at elevations of 700 to 2,300 meters. Flowering from May to August, this plant produces white to pale pink flowers in small clusters with heads 14 to 18 millimeters long. Growing as a subshrub 25 to 45 centimeters tall with multiple stems and white felty hairs, it forms dense clusters in harsh mountain environments. Its leaves are pinnately lobed, typically 5 to 10 centimeters long, with 2 to 5 pairs of relatively flat leaf lobes that have distinctive gland-pitted undersides. The fruit features a pappus of 10 to 16 scales arranged in 3 to 4 nearly equal series, with the longest scales measuring 7 to 9 millimeters.

Habitat: Unstable, sandy to rocky, generally serpentine soils, scree, drainages

Bloom period: May-Aug

Elevation: 700-2300 m

Bioregions: e KR.

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