Senecio californicus

California ragwort, California Ragwort

Family: Asteraceae · Type: annual · Native

California ragwort is a California native annual found in southern Sierra Nevada, Tehachapi, central and western California, southwestern California, and desert southern California in sandy, dry or drying sites at elevations below 1,200 meters. Flowering from March to June, this plant produces yellow ray flowers 8 to 12 millimeters long with yellow disk flowers in radiate heads. Growing with branched stems 10 to 50 centimeters tall that emerge from a taproot, the plant can have 1 to 6 stems growing from its base or throughout. Its leaves are lance-linear to lanceolate, ranging 2 to 8 centimeters long, with lower leaves tapering to winged petioles and upper leaves sessile and clasping, varying from nearly entire to dentate or pinnately lobed. The fruit is 2 to 2.5 millimeters long and covered in short, stiff hairs.

Habitat: Sandy, dry or drying sites

Bloom period: Mar-Jun

Elevation: < 1200 m

Bioregions: s SN, Teh, CW, SW, DSon

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