Lessingia leptoclada

Sierra lessingia

Family: Asteraceae · Type: annual · Native

Sierra lessingia is a California native annual found in the Sierra Nevada on open slopes, roadsides, woodland, and conifer forest at elevations of 150 to 2,100 meters. Flowering from July to October, this plant produces lavender flowers with darker tube colors in hemispheric or widely obconic involucres 5 to 10 millimeters wide. Growing with erect stems 5 to 90 centimeters tall, it features long, stiffly ascending branches that are tan-colored and glabrous or sparsely hairy. Its leaves range from lanceolate or ovate cauline leaves to reduced awl-shaped bracts, with sunken glands and varying hairiness from glabrous to tomentose. The fruit is 3 to 4 millimeters long with a pappus that exceeds the fruit length.

Habitat: Open slopes, roadsides, woodland, conifer forest, occasionally on granitic soil

Bloom period: Jul-Oct

Elevation: 150-2100 m

Bioregions: SN.

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