Crocidium multicaule

Common spring gold

Family: Asteraceae · Type: annual · Native

Common spring gold is a California native annual found in the Klamath Ranges, northern California Coast Ranges, high Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada Foothills, eastern San Francisco Bay Area, and southern Coast Ranges in sandy soils, grasslands, and open woodlands at elevations up to 1,600 meters. Flowering from February to June, this plant produces bright yellow ray flowers 4 to 10 millimeters long with distinctive radiate heads. Growing with slender stems 5 to 30 centimeters tall, it emerges with 1 to few unbranched stems that are glabrous or slightly hairy, especially in lower axils. Its leaves are alternate, ranging from linear to obovate, approximately 10 to 25 millimeters long, and slightly fleshy with entire or few-toothed margins. The fruit is small, elliptic, and develops a gelatinous coating when wet, with early-deciduous bristles that often disappear quickly.

Habitat: Sandy soils, grassland, open woodland

Bloom period: Feb-Jun

Elevation: generally <= 1600 m

Bioregions: KR, NCoR, CaRF, SNF, e SnFrB, SCoR (uncommon), MP

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