Encelia farinosa

Brittlebush

Family: Asteraceae · Type: shrub · Native

Brittlebush is a California native shrub found in eastern Southern California, adjacent Peninsular Ranges, and desert regions in coastal scrub and stony desert hillsides at elevations below 1,500 meters. Flowering from January to June and August to September, this plant produces yellow ray flowers and yellow or brown-purple disk flowers in radiate heads 3 to 9 millimeters long. Growing with much-branched stems 30 to 150 centimeters tall from one or several trunks, it has a distinctively fragrant sap and smooth bark on older stems. Its leaves, clustered near stem tips, are silver- or gray-tomentose, ovate to lanceolate, 2 to 7 centimeters long with petioles 10 to 20 millimeters in length. The plant produces small fruits 3 to 6 millimeters long without a pappus.

Habitat: Coastal scrub, stony desert hillsides

Bloom period: Jan-Jun, Aug--Sep

Elevation: < 1500 m.

Bioregions: e SCo, adjacent PR, D

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