Lessingia ramulosa

Sonoma lessingia

Family: Asteraceae · Type: annual · Native

Sonoma lessingia is a California native annual found in northern Coast Ranges and northern San Francisco Bay Area bioregions in open hills, chaparral, woodland, and forest, often on serpentine soil at elevations of 100 to 1,000 meters. Flowering from July to October, this plant produces lavender flowers with darker tube coloration in small clusters with involucres 5 to 7 millimeters wide. Growing with erect tan stems 20 to 50 centimeters tall, it has ascending branches that are proximally tomentose and distally glandular-puberulent. Its cauline leaves are small, measuring 0.5 to 2.5 centimeters long, ovate in shape, and range from entire to toothed with stalked glands. The fruit is 3 to 4 millimeters long with a pappus longer than the fruit itself.

Habitat: Open hills, chaparral, woodland, forest, roadsides, often on serpentine soil

Bloom period: Jul-Oct

Elevation: 100-1000 m

Bioregions: NCoR, n SnFrB.

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