Madia elegans

Common madia

Family: Asteraceae · Type: annual · Native

Common madia is a California native annual found in California Floristic Province (excluding Channel Islands) and Great Basin regions in grassy, open, or disturbed sites, including serpentine soils at elevations up to 3,400 meters. Flowering from April to November, this plant produces bright yellow ray flowers often maroon at the base, with showy heads arranged in open, flat-topped clusters. Growing 6 to 250 centimeters tall with stems that are soft to coarse-hairy and glandular-hairy with yellow, purple, or black glands, lateral branches occasionally exceed the main stem. Its leaves are 3 to 20 centimeters long and 2 to 20 millimeters wide, ranging from lanceolate to linear in shape. The ray fruits are compressed or slightly three-angled, black or brown, and occasionally mottled, with a dull or glossy surface.

Habitat: Grassy, open, or disturbed sites, in coarse or clayey soils, including serpentine

Bloom period: Apr-Nov

Elevation: < 3400 m

Bioregions: CA-FP (exc ChI), GB (exc Wrn, W&ampI)

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