Encelia frutescens

Bush encelia

Family: Asteraceae · Type: shrub · Native

Bush encelia is a California native shrub found in the Colorado Desert region in desert washes, flats, slopes, and roadsides at elevations below 800 meters. Flowering from February to May, this plant produces yellow disk flowers in solitary heads approximately 1 centimeter wide. Growing 50 to 150 centimeters tall with many slender branches emerging from one to several short trunks, it has a distinctive branching structure with fissured bark on older stems. Its scattered leaves are small, measuring 10 to 25 millimeters long, elliptic or narrowly ovate in shape, with a green strigose surface. The plant produces small fruits 6 to 9 millimeters long, sometimes with two slender scales as a pappus.

Habitat: Desert washes, flats, slopes, roadsides

Bloom period: Feb-May

Elevation: < 800 m

Bioregions: D

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