Helminthotheca echioides

Bristly ox-tongue

Family: Asteraceae · Type: annual · Not Native

Conservation status: Cal-IPC Yes

Bristly ox-tongue is a naturalized annual found in northwestern California, northern Sierra Nevada foothills, the Great Valley, central western, and southwestern California in disturbed areas at elevations below 1,050 meters. Flowering throughout the year, this plant produces yellow flowers in heads 2 to 4 centimeters wide, with distinctive leaf-like outer phyllaries that often conceal the inner phyllaries. Growing with coarse, stout stems 30 to 200 centimeters tall, it spreads readily in open areas. Its leaves range from 5 to 20 centimeters long, oblong in shape, with variable margins that can be entire, coarsely toothed, or shallowly lobed, with lower leaves tapering to winged leaf stalks and upper leaves sometimes clasping the stem. The fruit is 5 to 7.5 millimeters long, with outer surfaces ranging from white to straw-colored or tan, and inner surfaces brown and transversely roughened.

Habitat: Common. Disturbed areas

Bloom period: All year

Elevation: < 1050 m

Bioregions: NW, n SNF, GV, CW, SW

California counties: Humboldt, Ventura, Los Angeles, Glenn, San Diego, Alameda, Butte, Napa, San Bernardino, San Joaquin, Yolo, Contra Costa, Marin, Monterey, Orange, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, Sonoma, Colusa, Mendocino, Sacramento, Tuolumne, Riverside

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