Pseudognaphalium californicum

Ladies' tobacco

Family: Asteraceae · Type: perennial · Native

Ladies' tobacco is a California native perennial herb found in California Floristic Province (except Great Valley) in sandy canyons, dry hills, and coastal chaparral at elevations of 60 to 800 meters. Flowering from April to July, this plant produces white to pink flowers in flat-topped or rounded clusters with shiny involucre heads. Growing with erect stems 20 to 130 centimeters tall that are stalked-glandular and sometimes slightly woolly, it has a distinctive scented quality. Its leaves are oblanceolate to lanceolate, 4 to 10 centimeters long, generally green and sticky with stalked glandular surfaces that can be slightly wavy. The fruit is ridged and smooth, with each flower head containing 105 to 140 pistillate flowers and 7 to 12 disk flowers.

Habitat: Sandy canyons, dry hills, coastal chaparral

Bloom period: Apr-Jul

Elevation: 60-800 m

Bioregions: CA-FP (exc GV)

California counties: Los Angeles, San Diego, San Bernardino, Ventura, Humboldt, Mendocino, Orange, San Mateo, Santa Barbara, Tulare, Calaveras, Kern, Riverside, Amador, Contra Costa, Madera, Napa, Alameda, San Benito, Shasta, Sierra, Tuolumne, El Dorado, Fresno, Lake, Marin, Mariposa, Monterey, Nevada, San Francisco, San Luis Obispo, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, Sonoma, Sutter, Glenn, Butte, Colusa, Yuba, Solano, Stanislaus, Trinity, Placer, Sacramento, Del Norte, Yolo

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