Psilocarphus chilensis

Round woolly-marbles

Family: Asteraceae · Type: annual · Native

Round woolly-marbles is a California native annual found in the Central Valley, San Francisco Bay Area, Sierra Nevada foothills, Coast Ranges, and southern California coastal regions in vernal pools and coastal interdune habitats at elevations below 700 meters. Flowering from March to July, this plant produces delicate white to green flowers in small heads 3 to 5.5 millimeters in diameter. Growing with multiple slender stems 2 to 7 in number, it develops a silky-cobwebby texture that becomes more pronounced in coastal populations. Its leaves are ovate to widely elliptic, typically 5 to 12 millimeters long and approximately 1.2 to 1.8 times wider than their length, with distal leaves appressed close to the flower heads. The plant's distinctive woolly appearance ranges from green to gray or white, with a delicate, soft texture that helps it blend into its ephemeral vernal pool environments.

Habitat: Uncommon. Vernal pools, coastal interdunes

Bloom period: Mar-Jul

Elevation: < 700 m

Bioregions: CaRF, SNF, GV, CCo, SCoRI, SCo

California counties: Riverside, Monterey, Kern, Fresno, Tulare, Solano, Merced, Calaveras, Marin, Tehama, Madera, Stanislaus, San Luis Obispo, Contra Costa, Shasta, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Butte, Yolo, Sonoma, Sutter, Santa Cruz

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