Senecio scorzonella

Sierra ragwort

Family: Asteraceae · Type: perennial · Native

Sierra ragwort is a California native perennial found in the high Cascade Range, Sierra Nevada, and eastern Sierra Nevada in open woodland and subalpine meadows at elevations of 1,600 to 3,500 meters. Flowering from July to August, this plant produces yellow disk flowers in clusters with 5 to 10 ray flowers, forming heads 10 to 24 millimeters wide. Growing with 1 to 4 stems 10 to 40 centimeters tall, it emerges from a stout rhizome and has woolly to tufted-tomentose stems. Its basal leaves are oblanceolate to lanceolate, 4 to 12 centimeters long and 1.5 to 3 centimeters wide, with dentate edges tapering to winged petioles. The plant's distinctive involucre has approximately 13 green phyllaries with black-tipped edges, creating a bell-shaped flower cluster.

Habitat: Open woodland, subalpine meadows

Bloom period: Jul-Aug

Elevation: 1600-3500 m

Bioregions: CaRH, SNH, SNE

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