Raillardella argentea

Silky raillardella

Family: Asteraceae · Type: perennial · Native

Silky raillardella is a California native perennial found in the Klamath Ranges, Cascade Range high elevations, Sierra Nevada, San Bernardino Mountains, Warner Mountains, and eastern Sierra Nevada in dry, open, gravelly sites within conifer forests and alpine slopes at elevations of 1,800 to 3,900 meters. Flowering from July to September, this plant produces yellow disk flowers in heads 6 to 11 millimeters long. Growing as a compact plant 1 to 15 centimeters tall with a low-growing, clustered form, it develops silky-hairy basal leaves. Its leaves are oblanceolate, 0.7 to 8 centimeters long, with entire or minutely toothed edges, covered in soft silvery hairs. The fruit is 5 to 9.5 millimeters long, with a pappus of 16 to 30 scales.

Habitat: Dry, open, generally gravelly sites in conifer forests, semi-barren subalpine and alpine slopes, flats

Bloom period: Jul-Sep

Elevation: 1800-3900 m

Bioregions: KR, CaRH, SNH, SnBr, Wrn, SNE

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