Layia pentachaeta

Sierra tidy tips

Family: Asteraceae · Type: annual · Native

Sierra tidy tips is a California native annual found in open grasslands and dry meadows at elevations of 500 to 1,500 meters. Flowering from March to May, this plant produces white and yellow daisy-like flowers with ray petals 3 to 26 millimeters long, creating bright, cheerful clusters. Growing with glandular stems 5 to 100 centimeters tall and having a distinctive lemon or acrid scent, it spreads in open landscapes with delicate branching. Its leaves are linear to lanceolate, with lower leaves often having 1 to 2 irregular lobes, creating a feathery, textured appearance. The plant produces distinctive ray fruits with white, plumose pappus bristles that aid in seed dispersal.

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