Lasthenia gracilis

Common goldfields, Common Goldfields

Family: Asteraceae · Type: annual · Native

Common goldfields is a California native annual found in the California Floristic Province (excluding northern coastal and high cascade ranges) and western Mojave Desert in diverse habitats at elevations below 1,500 meters. Flowering from February to June, this plant produces bright yellow flowers in heads 5 to 10 millimeters wide with distinctive dark red disk centers when tested in alkali solution. Growing with slender stems up to 40 centimeters tall, the plant can be simple or freely branched, with occasional basal branching in desert forms. Its leaves range from 0.8 to 7 centimeters long, linear to oblanceolate in shape, slightly hairy, and becoming more fleshy in coastal environments. The fruit is less than 3 millimeters long, with a potential pappus of 2 to 4 white, lance-ovate scales.

Habitat: Abundant, many habitats

Bloom period: Feb-Jun

Elevation: < 1500 m

Bioregions: CA-FP (exc NCoRH, CaRH, SNH), w DMoj

California counties: Santa Barbara, San Bernardino, Los Angeles, Kern, Ventura, Tuolumne, Imperial, Butte, Calaveras, El Dorado, Fresno, Inyo, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, Monterey, Orange, Riverside, San Benito, San Diego, San Luis Obispo, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Solano, Stanislaus, Trinity, Tulare, Lake, Yuba, Amador, Sacramento, Sonoma, Tehama, Kings, Marin, San Francisco, Contra Costa, Napa, Alameda, Shasta, Del Norte, San Joaquin, Sutter, Colusa, Mendocino, Placer, Humboldt

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