Lepidospartum squamatum

California broomsage

Family: Asteraceae · Type: shrub · Native

California broomsage is a California native shrub found in the southern Sierra Nevada foothills, San Joaquin Valley, southern Central Coast, San Francisco Bay Area, southern Coastal Range, southwestern California, and desert regions at elevations below 1,900 meters in sandy or gravelly washes and creosote-bush scrub. Flowering from August to November, this plant produces distinctive yellow flowers in compact clusters. Growing as a spreading, round-topped shrub 30 to 100 centimeters tall, it develops a woolly appearance when young that becomes increasingly glabrous with age. Its leaves transition from soft, spreading linear to oblanceolate juvenile leaves that are whitish-gray to appressed, glabrous adult leaves, with woolly tufts often appearing in leaf axils. The fruit is 3.5 to 5 millimeters long with 10 to 15 prominent veins and white to brown pappus bristles.

Habitat: Sandy or gravelly washes, stream terraces, roadsides; creosote-bush scrub

Bloom period: Aug-Nov

Elevation: < 1900 m

Bioregions: SNF, SnJV, s CCo, SnFrB, SCoR, SW, D

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