Senecio serra var. serra

Tall ragwort, sawtooth groundsel, Sawtooth Groundsel

Family: Asteraceae · Type: perennial · Native

Tall ragwort is a California native perennial found in the southern Sierra Nevada, Sierra Nevada, Great Basin, and southern Sierra Nevada Foothills in open streambanks of conifer woodland and sagebrush scrub at elevations of 1,000 to 3,000 meters. Flowering from July to August, this plant produces yellow ray flowers 5 to 7 millimeters long with numerous flower heads arranged in flat-topped to panicle-like clusters. Growing 4 to 10 decimeters tall with multiple stems that are glabrous or lightly hairy, it emerges from a branched woody caudex. Its leaves are distinctively linear to lanceolate, 5 to 20 centimeters long and 1 to 4 centimeters wide, with teeth along the margins and lower leaves often withering before flowering. The plant's flower heads feature narrow bell-shaped involucres with about 8 phyllaries, some with distinctive black-tipped green edges.

Habitat: Open streambanks in conifer woodland, sagebrush scrub

Bloom period: Jul-Aug

Elevation: 1000-3000 m

Bioregions: CaRH, s SNF, SNH, GB

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