Psathyrotes ramosissima

Turtleback, Turtleback

Family: Asteraceae · Type: perennial · Native

Turtleback is a California native perennial found in southern Sierra Nevada and desert regions in sandy creosote-bush scrub at elevations below 1,200 meters. Flowering from March to June, this plant produces pale yellow flowers in broadly bell-shaped heads 6 to 10 millimeters long. Growing with branching stems 3 to 30 centimeters tall, it forms a low, compact plant with multiple stems. Its leaves are distinctively rounded to deltate, 8 to 25 millimeters long and up to 30 millimeters wide, with toothed edges. The fruit is accompanied by 120 to 140 pappus bristles approximately 3 to 4 millimeters long.

Habitat: Sandy creosote-bush scrub

Bloom period: Mar-Jun

Elevation: < 1200 m

Bioregions: s SNE, D

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