Pseudognaphalium stramineum

Cottonbatting plant

Family: Asteraceae · Type: annual · Native

Cottonbatting plant is a California native annual found in coastal and southern California bioregions including Northern Coast, Central Coast, San Francisco Bay Area, Southern Coast Ranges, Southern California, Channel Islands, and San Bernardino Mountains in diverse habitats like dunes, chaparral slopes, and roadsides at elevations below 2,500 meters. Flowering from March to August, this plant produces white to yellow flowers in dense heads 1 to 2 centimeters in diameter with shiny, transparent phyllaries. Growing 20 to 80 centimeters tall with loosely tomentose stems that are not glandular, it spreads in an upright, somewhat branching form. Its leaves are densely arranged, 2 to 8 centimeters long and 2 to 5 millimeters wide, oblong to narrowly oblanceolate with gray-tomentose surfaces and slightly curled margins. The fruit is smooth or lightly textured, with pappus bristles that shed in loose clusters.

Habitat: Many habitats, dunes, chaparral slopes, roadsides

Bloom period: Mar-Aug

Elevation: < 2500 m

Bioregions: NCo, CCo, SnFrB, SCoRO, SCo, ChI, SnBr

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

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