Packera ionophylla

Tehachapi ragwort

Family: Asteraceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 4.3

Tehachapi ragwort is a native perennial herb found in southern Sierra Nevada, San Gabriel Mountains, and San Bernardino Mountains in conifer woodland and rocky granitic areas at elevations of 1,400 to 3,000 meters. Flowering from June to August, this plant produces yellow ray flowers 8 to 10 millimeters long with numerous yellow disk flowers. Growing 15 to 30 centimeters tall with cobwebby to woolly stems that may become glabrous, it develops from a taprooted or creeping caudex. Its distinctive basal leaves are widely ovate or fiddle-shaped, pinnately lobed with 1 to 3 pairs of lateral lobes, measuring 1 to 3 centimeters long and wedge-shaped at the base. The plant's flower heads are radiate, with 8 to 13 ray flowers arranged in clusters of 3 to 6.

Habitat: Conifer woodland, dry, rocky slopes, granitic outcrops

Bloom period: Jun-Aug

Elevation: 1400-3000 m

Bioregions: s SN, SnGb, SnBr.

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

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