Descurainia pinnata

Western tansy mustard

Family: Brassicaceae · Type: annual · Native

Western tansy mustard is a California native annual herb found in various bioregions in open, dry habitats at low to moderate elevations. Flowering from March to July, this plant produces small yellow flowers about 1 to 3 millimeters long in delicate clusters. Growing 1.3 to 5.7 tall with green or grayish stems that can be simple or branched, it has a distinctive appearance with finely divided leaves. Its leaves are typically 1 to 15 centimeters long, pinnately lobed with 4 to 9 pairs of lateral lobes, each lobe oblanceolate to ovate and sometimes dentate. The fruit is club-shaped, measuring 4 to 13 millimeters long with prominent midveins on each valve.

California counties: Kern, San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Fresno, Inyo, Mono, Orange, Riverside, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Imperial, Lassen, Ventura, Plumas, Tehama, Siskiyou, El Dorado, San Joaquin, Humboldt, Modoc, Alameda, Tulare, Placer, Monterey, Nevada, Shasta, Mendocino

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