Lasthenia coronaria

Crowned or royal goldfields, Crowned Goldfields

Family: Asteraceae · Type: annual · Native

Crowned goldfields is a California native annual found in southern California coastal areas, Transverse Ranges, Peninsular Ranges, and western deserts in sunny, open grassy places at elevations below 700 meters. Flowering from March to May, this plant produces bright yellow flowers in small clusters, with ray flowers 3 to 10 millimeters long. Growing to 40 centimeters tall with simple or much-branched stems covered in short glandular and non-glandular hairs, it has a delicate and sweet-scented appearance. Its leaves are linear, 1.5 to 6 centimeters long, often glandular-hairy and sometimes pinnately lobed. The small fruits are less than 2.5 millimeters long, linear to narrowly club-shaped, and dark black when mature.

Habitat: Sunny, open grassy places, uncommon

Bloom period: Mar-May

Elevation: < 700 m

Bioregions: SCo, TR, PR, w D

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