Erigeron petrophilus var. petrophilus

Cliff fleabane

Family: Asteraceae · Type: perennial · Native

Cliff fleabane is a California native perennial found in the northern Coast Ranges, northern Coast Range foothills, San Francisco Bay Area, and southern Coast Ranges in rocky foothills and montane forest habitats at elevations of 500 to 2,100 meters. Flowering from May to September, this plant produces white to lavender ray flowers with purple-tipped phyllaries in compact clusters. Growing with loosely arranged stems 10 to 40 centimeters tall, it features distinctively crinkly and glandular-hairy herbage. Its leaves are generally oblanceolate to spatulate, covered in soft, crinkly hairs that give the plant a distinctive textured appearance. The plant's dense glandular hair coverage and purple-tipped flower bracts make it particularly recognizable in its rocky montane habitats.

Habitat: Rocky foothills to montane forest, sometimes on serpentine

Bloom period: May-Sep

Elevation: 500-2100 m

Bioregions: NCoRO, NCoRH, SnFrB, SCoR.

California counties: Contra Costa, Lake, Glenn, Mendocino, Napa, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, Santa Cruz, Trinity, Marin, Monterey, Santa Clara, Colusa, Siskiyou, Alameda, Sonoma, Tehama, Merced

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