Leucosyris carnosa

Shrubby alkali aster, Shrubby Alkali Aster

Family: Asteraceae · Type: shrub · Native

Shrubby alkali aster is a California native shrub found in the San Joaquin Valley, eastern South Coast, northeastern Sierra Nevada, and eastern Mojave Desert in alkaline soils at elevations of 100 to 1,600 meters. Flowering from June to October, this plant produces white disk flowers in heads approximately 6 to 7 millimeters wide, clustered at branch tips. Growing with much-branched stems 50 to 90 centimeters tall, it emerges from long underground rhizomes and has a distinctly glaucous (bluish-gray) appearance. Its leaves are fleshy and linear, proximal leaves reaching 1 to 2 centimeters long and 2 to 3 millimeters wide, with upper leaves reduced to small, appressed awl-shaped scales. The fruit is cylindrical, 2 to 3 millimeters long, with a pappus approximately 6 millimeters in length.

Habitat: Alkaline soils

Bloom period: Jun-Oct

Elevation: 100-1600 m

Bioregions: SnJV, e SCo, SNE, DMoj

California counties: Kern, Inyo, Los Angeles, San Bernardino

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