Heterotheca oregona

Rayless goldenaster, Rayless Goldenaster

Family: Asteraceae · Type: perennial · Native

Rayless goldenaster is a California native perennial herb found in rocky or disturbed habitats across California's coastal and interior regions. Flowering from summer to fall, this plant produces discoid flower heads without ray flowers, with clusters of small yellow disk flowers 7.5 to 14 millimeters long. Growing 20 to 100 centimeters tall with ascending to erect stems that branch proximally and distally, it develops a variable canopy with glandular and bristly stems. Its mid-stem leaves are oblanceolate, entire, and range from nearly glabrous to densely bristly, with distal leaves progressively wider. The plant produces small fruits 2 to 5 millimeters long, with an outer pappus less than half a millimeter and inner pappus scales 4.5 to 6.5 millimeters long.

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