Malacothrix floccifera
Woolly dandelion
Family: Asteraceae · Type: annual · Native
Woolly dandelion is a California native annual found in northwestern California, the Cascade Range, northern and central Sierra Nevada, Sacramento Valley, central western California, Transverse Ranges, and Peninsular Ranges in open burns, chaparral, pinyon and juniper woodland, and yellow-pine forest at elevations below 2,000 meters. Flowering from March to November, this plant produces white to yellow flowers in heads 5 to 9 millimeters long arranged in cyme- or panicle-like clusters. Growing up to 45 centimeters tall with 1 to many branched stems that are erect or ascending and glabrous, it has a distinctive growth habit. Its basal leaves are fleshy and oblong or oblong-spoon-shaped, with proximal leaves featuring 4 to 6 pairs of wide, obtuse lobes with white hair-tufted bases. The flower heads have outer phyllaries approximately half the length of inner phyllaries, with densely bristly receptacles and ligules of outermost flowers extending 5 to 9 millimeters.
Habitat: In loose soil of open burns, slides, in chaparral, pinyon/juniper woodland, yellow-pine forest
Bloom period: Mar-Nov
Elevation: < 2000 m
Bioregions: NW, CaR, n&c SNH, ScV, CW, WTR, PR
Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.