Leptosyne hamiltonii

Mount hamilton tickseed, Mount Hamilton Tickseed

Family: Asteraceae · Type: annual · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 1B.2

Mount hamilton tickseed is a rare (CNPS 1B.2) California native annual found in the eastern San Francisco Bay Area's Diablo Range on dry exposed slopes at elevations of 600 to 1,300 meters. Flowering from March to May, this plant produces yellow ray flowers 3 to 8 millimeters long that are oblong to obovate and reflexed, surrounding a dense central disk. Growing 5 to 25 centimeters tall with one to many erect, glabrous stems, it forms a delicate, slender profile. Its finely divided leaves are deeply pinnate, with narrow linear segments about 1 millimeter wide that are grooved on the upper surface. The fruits are distinctive, with ray fruits 5 millimeters long that are brown or tan with brown splotches, and shiny disk fruits with ascending hairs along the margins.

Habitat: dry exposed slopes

Bloom period: Mar-May

Elevation: 600-1300 m

Bioregions: e SnFrB (Diablo Range).

California counties: Stanislaus, Santa Clara

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