Lasthenia ferrisiae

Ferris' goldfields, Ferris' Goldfields

Family: Asteraceae · Type: annual · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 4.2

Ferris' goldfields is a native annual herb found in the Sacramento Valley and San Joaquin Valley in vernal pools and wet saline flats at elevations below 700 meters. Flowering from February to May, this plant produces bright yellow flowers in small heads with ray flowers 6 to 10 millimeters long. Growing to 40 centimeters tall with erect stems that are simple or branched and either glabrous or slightly hairy, it has fleshy linear leaves 1 to 8 centimeters long. Its distinctive involucre is 5 to 10 millimeters wide with 6 to 14 phyllaries that are fused more than two-thirds of their length and hairy at the tips. The fruit is small, 2 to 2.5 millimeters long, club-shaped, and turns black when mature.

Habitat: Vernal pools or wet saline flats

Bloom period: Feb-May

Elevation: < 700 m

Bioregions: ScV (2 stations), SnJV.

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