Senecio clarkianus
Clark's ragwort
Family: Asteraceae · Type: perennial · Native
Clark's ragwort is a California native perennial found in northern Sierra Nevada and central Sierra Nevada in wet meadows and conifer forests at elevations of 1,200 to 2,700 meters. Flowering from July to September, this plant produces yellow ray flowers with disk flowers in heads 8 to 20 millimeters long arranged in flat-topped clusters. Growing with a single stem 50 to 100 centimeters tall that is sparsely hairy, it emerges from a fibrous-rooted caudex. Its leaves are primarily lanceolate to oblong, ranging from 9 to 16 centimeters long, with lower leaves deeply cut or pinnately lobed and tapering to a petiole. The distinctive flower heads feature 8 to 13 ray flowers and 35 to 45 disk flowers with dark green-tipped phyllaries.
Habitat: Wet meadows, conifer forest
Bloom period: Jul-Sep
Elevation: 1200-2700 m
Bioregions: n SNH, c&s SN.
Data from The California Species Project — 14,000+ California species with verified data from CNPS, CDFW, USFWS, Jepson eFlora, Cal-IPC, and more.