Senecio astephanus

San gabriel ragwort, San Gabriel Ragwort

Family: Asteraceae · Type: perennial · Native

Conservation status: CNPS 4.3

San gabriel ragwort is a California native perennial ranked 4.3 by CNPS, found in southern coastal ranges and transverse ranges in steep rocky slopes of chaparral, coastal sage scrub, and oak woodland at elevations of 400 to 1,500 meters. Flowering from April to June, this plant produces yellow disk flowers in dense clusters 10 to 20 millimeters wide, with green involucral bracts. Growing with erect stems 30 to 100 centimeters tall that are unevenly woolly and becoming nearly smooth, it develops from an unbranched woody base. Its leaves are distinctive, with basal leaves 10 to 25 centimeters long and 3 to 7 centimeters wide, elliptic-ovate to lanceolate, with toothed edges and tapering to a petiole. The fruit is small, smooth, and approximately 2 to 2.5 millimeters long.

Habitat: Steep rocky slopes in chaparral/coastal-sage scrub and oak woodland

Bloom period: Apr-Jun

Elevation: 400-1500 m

Bioregions: SCoR, TR.

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