Lasthenia leptalea

Salinas valley goldfields, Salinas Valley Goldfields

Family: Asteraceae · Type: annual · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 4.3

Salinas valley goldfields is a California native annual herb found in the central coastal ranges of Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties in openings in woodland at elevations below 500 meters. Flowering from February to May, this plant produces yellow ray flowers with dark red centers in small, compact flower heads approximately 4 to 6 millimeters wide. Growing as a delicate, erect plant less than 15 centimeters tall, it has slender stems that are occasionally sinuous and simple or slightly branched. Its leaves are narrow and linear, 3 to 20 millimeters long, sparsely covered with fine hairs and growing directly along the stem. The tiny fruits are less than 2 millimeters long, narrowly club-shaped, and sparsely hairy with grayish coloration.

Habitat: Openings in woodland

Bloom period: Feb-May

Elevation: < 500 m

Bioregions: SCoRO (Monterey, San Luis Obispo cos.).

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