Ericameria cooperi var. cooperi

Cooper's goldenbush

Family: Asteraceae · Type: shrub · Native

Cooper's goldenbush is a California native shrub found in western Transverse Ranges, southern Great Basin, eastern Sierra Nevada, and Mojave Desert regions in rocky slopes and valleys within creosote-bush scrub and Joshua-tree woodland at elevations of 300 to 2,000 meters. Flowering from March to June, this plant produces yellow flowers in rounded clusters with 0 to 3 ray flowers and 4 to 12 disk flowers. Growing 30 to 100 centimeters tall with puberulent stems that are gland-dotted and resinous, it has a distinctive branching structure. Its leaves are narrow and linear, 3 to 15 millimeters long, with acute tips and covered in gland-dotted pits. The fruit is a softly silky-hairy, obconic structure 3 to 3.5 millimeters long with 10 to 12 thin veins.

Habitat: Rocky slopes, valleys, in creosote-bush scrub, Joshua-tree woodland

Bloom period: Mar-Jun

Elevation: 300-2000 m

Bioregions: WTR, SnGb, SNE, DMoj

California counties: San Bernardino, Inyo, Los Angeles, Kern, Ventura, Riverside, Mono, San Luis Obispo

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