Madia sativa

Coast tarweed, Coast Tarweed

Family: Asteraceae · Type: annual · Native

Coast tarweed is a California native annual found in northwestern California, northern Sierra Nevada foothills, northern Sierra Nevada, Sacramento Valley, central Western California, southern California coastal areas, Channel Islands, and western Transverse Ranges in grassy or disturbed sites at elevations below 1,000 meters. Flowering from May to October, this plant produces green-yellow to occasionally purple-red ray flowers in small heads arranged in crowded clusters. Growing 35 to 100 centimeters tall with coarse and glandular-hairy stems featuring yellow, purple, or black glands, the plant has lateral branches rarely exceeding the main stem. Its leaves range from 2 to 18 centimeters long, broadly lanceolate to linear-oblong, with widths of 3 to 18 millimeters. The fruits are compressed, black or brown, sometimes mottled, and appear beakless.

Habitat: Grassy, open, or disturbed sites

Bloom period: May-Oct

Elevation: < 1000 m

Bioregions: NW (exc NCoRH), n SNF, n SNH (uncommon), ScV (rare), CW, SCo, ChI, WTR

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